By Daniel Vincent McGonigle III
July 4, 2014
Anarchist, secessionist and neo-con anti-constitutionalists contaminate the liberty movement with an un-American intellectual disease, and have a penchant for quoting 20th century philosopher Friedrich Hayek in their bogus attempts to back up their promotion of anarchist, secessionist, anti-constitutionalist philosophy.
These promoters of un-American anti-constitutionalism who pretend to be pro-liberty, ignore a major western political philosophy principle: that the end or purpose of government is the common or collective defense of life, liberty and property. Obviously, that principle is pro-liberty. No less than Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Samuel Adams, Frederic Bastiat, and 21st century scholars Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr. and Pastor Garrett Lear, have confirmed the principle.
Samuel Adams in the 1772 Boston Committee of Correspondence Report, proclaimed that “the grand end of civil government” is the common defence of Rights, the principal of which being Life, Liberty and Property.
The U.S. Constitution enumerates in the Preamble, the purpose: “to provide for the common defence“, and enumerates at Art I Sec 8 Clause 1, the power: “to provide for the common Defence“.
French political economist Frederic Bastiat in his 1850 book The Law, asserted that “the Law” is the collective defense of life, liberty and property. The American Constitution was Bastiat’s favorite form of government.
Definition of the word mentioned 6 times in the Constitution & Bill of Rights:
“MILI’TIA, n. . . The body of soldiers [militiamen] in a state enrolled for discipline, but not engaged in actual service except in emergencies; as distinguished from regular troops, whose sole occupation is war or military service. The militia of a country are the able bodied men organized into companies, regiments and brigades, with officers of all grades, and required by law to attend military exercises on certain days only, but at other times left to pursue their usual occupations.” — Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary
The 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights: “Section 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.”
Enumerated in the U.S. Constitution at Art I Sec 8 Clause 16: “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia “.
Hayek associates “liberty ” with “organization “:
“The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better.” ― Friedrich Hayek
Disbanding of the People began with the January 21, 1903 federal Militia Act: “the organized militia, to be known as the National Guard of the State “. The National Guard that claimed to be “the organized militia ” was later federalized, in violation of the Constitution’s confirmation that the Militia are State institutions, enumerated at Art II Sec 2 Clause 1: “the Militia of the several States ”. Today, anarchists-voluntaryists-secessionists support the “Unorganized Militia ” false principle of the 1916 National Defense Act, an oxymoron NOT enumerated in any of the federal or state constitutions, but along with “Reserve Militia ” of 1903, were and are both oxymorons stipulated only in repugnant federal and state statutes under color of law since 1903. That disbanding of the People from the Militia may be the greatest anti-liberty example of “exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization ” that Hayek spoke of.
The disbanding of the Militia and disbanding the whole body of the People who composed the Militia in the early 20th century, contradicted Art I Sec 8 Clause 16, contradicted Webster’s American definition of “Militia”, and contradicted 300 years of pre-Constitution and post-Constitution statutes mandating involvement of the body of the People. In 1774, the People in Militia command structures took control of government operations throughout the colonies, without firing a shot.
Enumerated at Art I Sec 8 Clause 15: “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions “.
The Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The 1776 Declaration of Independence and the 1787 Constitution Preamble confirm the supreme authority of the People. The statutory un-organizing of the body of the People who compose the Militia, in effect, dis-empowered We the People and repugnantly removed our organized ability to execute supreme authority when necessary. That organized authority “to execute [Clause 15] .. This Constitution, and the Laws .. made in Pursuance thereof ” [Art VI Clause 2], must be restored.
Revitalizing the State-County-Local Militia institutions through the passing of a single statute in the States, and thereby restoring performance of the enforcement and security Clauses of the Constitution, is in fact THE urgent necessity that We the people and state legislators must pursue.
© 2014 Daniel Vincent McGonigle III
Mr. McGonigle is author-editor of “Execute the Laws” To Restore the Republic (2013) Camp Constitution Press, he publishes brief commentaries here and at the blog EnforceOurConstitution.com, and is an instructor at the annual Camp Constitution.
https://campconstitution.net/store/products/execute-the-laws
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/670307.Friedrich_Hayek