Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.
IOW, we have to check at least once a year to see that the "unorganized" militia, the people at large in Hamilton's terms, have provided themselves with the proper arms and equipment.
Hamilton was arguing for creation of a select militia, something like today's National Guard, but he was not arguing against having a "general militia" as well. The Bill of Rights in general, and the second amendment in particular was created to assure the Anti-Federalist, that Federalist like Hamilton would be prevented from "misconstruction or abuse of" the Government's powers
Hamilton was calling for assembling every person in the United States once or twice a year to see that they were properly armed and equipped? You're kidding, right?
"The people at large", "the whole people", "the people", "Freemen", were all the same -- adult, white, male, citizens. They were the Militia. Hamilton suggested that they be assembled once or twice a year.
He went on to say that there was no way to arm, equip, and train "all the militia".
Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.
Yes, he goes on to make a case for a select militia as being more practical than trying to turn the whole population into a well-drilled fighting force ... yet nonetheless he notes that a self-armed general population is indeed reasonable and desirable.