The only refuge left for those who prophesy the downfall of the State governments is the visionary supposition that the federal government may previously accumulate a military force for the projects of ambition. The reasonings contained in these papers must have been employed to little purpose indeed, if it could be necessary now to disprove the reality of this danger. That the people and the States should, for a sufficient period of time, elect an uninterupted succession of men ready to betray both; that the traitors should, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment; that the governments and the people of the States should silently and patiently behold the gathering storm, and continue to supply the materials, until it should be prepared to burst on their own heads, must appear to every one more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism.
Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made.
Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.
Well, we're here.
The State Militias (Armies) are gone, for all practical purposes, either under Federal Command, or deployed abroad. Most National Guard units are designated as the "State Militia", but can be called up by the Federal Government. The State Governments increasingly stripped of power and relevance by the apparent inability to resist the redistribution of tax money to the states with strings attached, yielding progressively more power to the Federal Government. Regulations and law have become a rubber stamp of the Federal version, imposed by popular demand for "Government money", in schemes which undermine the spirit, if not the letter of the Constitution.
We (not us, specifically, but the country) has elected that succession, with rare exception, and the progress made by those who daily craft legislation to destroy our Liberty in even the most minute things has continued unabated: Only the sunset clause in the '94 AWB removed that legislation, not a vote of the Legislature--and those pushing that and more now seek to make that permanent. Your light bulbs and toilets are at the mercy of the Congress, and having exerted themselves thus in minutiae with no meaningful resistance, they now want our arms.
The tyranny advances daily, and with it comes encumbrances on the fruits of those who labor.
Correct the numbers for the current population, however, and we are left with the bare fact that the People, in possession of their arms, constitute the last line of defense of Liberty.
All other uses for arms pale in comparison to this reason for their possession by the People.
Furthermore, in consideration of this reason alone, there should be no infringements on the Right, otherwise the People would be placed at a severe disadvantage.
Those in this succession of usurpers know full well that the totalitarian grip on America cannot be consolidated without the removal of the ability to practice the Right, and have chipped away at it to the point they think they can reduce it to meaninglessness with a single blow.
It is, and remains, only the potential of the force of arms in private hands which deters this.
IF we fail to secure the Right, by whatever means necessary, the last days of this Republic will be nasty, brutish, and short.
Well said; very good argument; and you are correct, it tears up my heart to have to say, as I am sure you are also not at all happy about the situation.
I believe the time has come, that for each county throughout each of the states, that county Tea Party should convene and choose 2 representatives to attend a Tea Party convention of their state, which will in turn debate and then consider and elect 2 representatives of their state, to attend a unique Tea Party national convention for the purpose of establishing a Second Continental Congress.
Setting the time and place for a first setting of the Second Continental Congress, then the unique national convention shall adjourn, and the representatives return to their states, where the Tea Party conventions of each state, will then take into consideration, who shall be their 2 representatives in the Second Continental Congress.
I believe, it is time to follow in the steps of our Founding Fathers, and create a new ship of state, to which our allegiance and love of our worthy American heritage and many foundations, shall transfer.
I believe, that *everybody* needs to see this preparation and action.
If the existing federal government fails us and takes one more step toward tyranny on which it has proven to be hell-bent, then we know, as Benjamin Franklin et al knew, it is time.
We must have a new democratic-republic to be where people can again be free from government tyranny, and we must, thru starting with a Second Continental Congress, make a good government, which will very likely be framed as the first but with a few refinements regarding how we may better limit government and that includes the courts.