ferred sundry propositions introduced by Charles Pinckney, of which this was one.1

In addition to the war power, which would seem to involve of itself the authority to raise all the necessary forces required by the exigencies of a war, the committee of detail had given the separate power "to raise armies," which the Convention enlarged by adding the term to "support."2. This embraced standing armies in time of peace, and, as the clause thus amended would obviously allow, such armies might be enlarged, to any extent and continued for any time. The nature of the gov ernment, and the liberties and the very prejudices of the people, required that some check should be introduced, to prevent an abuse of this power. A limitation of the number of troops that Congress might keep up in time of peace was proposed, but it was rejected by all the States as inexpedient and impracticable. Another check, capable of being adapted to the proper exercise of the power itself, was to be found in an idea suggested by Mr. Mason, of preventing a perpetual revenue. The application of this principle to the power of raising and supporting armies would furnish a salutary limitation, by requiring the appropriations for this purpose to pass frequently under the review of the representatives of the people, without embarrassing the exercise of the power itself. Accordingly, the clause now in the Constitution, which restricts the appropriation of

1 Elliot, V. 440, 510, 511. 2 Ibid. 442.

3 Ibid. 443.

4 Ibid, 440.

money to the support of the army to a term not longer than two years, was added to the power of raising and supporting armies.1

Authority "to provide and maintain a navy" was unanimously agreed as the most convenient definition of the power, and to this was added, from the Articles of Confederation, the power "to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces."2

The next subject which required consideration was the power of the general government over the militia of the States. There were few subjects dealt with by the framers of the Constitution exceeding this in magnitude, in importance, and delicacy. It involved not only the relations of the general government to the States and the people of the States, but the question whether and how far the whole effective force of the nation could be employed for national purposes and directed to the accomplishment of objects of national concern. The mode in which this question should be settled would determine, in a great degree, and for all time, whether the national power was to depend, for the discharge of its various duties in peace and in war, upon standing armies, or whether it could also employ and rely upon that great reservation of force that exists in all countries accustomed to enroll and train their private citizens to the use of arms.

The American Revolution had displayed nothing

1 Elliot, V. 510, 511 tion, Art. I. § 8, clause 12.

Constitu

2 Elliot, V. 443.

more conspicuously than the fact, that, while the militia of the States were in general neither deficient in personal courage, nor incapable of being made soldiers, they were inefficient and unreliable as troops. One of the principal reasons for this was, that, when called into the field in the service of the federal power, the different corps of the several States looked up to their own local government as their sovereign; and being amenable to no law but that of their own State, they were frequently indisposed to recognize any other authority. But a far more powerful cause of their inefficiency lay in the fact that they were not disciplined or organized or armed upon any uniform system. A regiment of militia drawn from New Hampshire was a very different body from one drawn from New York, or Pennsylvania, or New Jersey, or South Carolina. The consequence was, that when these different forces were brought to act together, there were often found in the same campaign, and sometimes in the same engagement, portions of them in a very respectable state of discipline and equipment, and others in no state of discipline or equipment at all.

The necessity, therefore, for a uniform system of disciplining and arming the militia was a thing well ascertained and understood, at the time of the formation of the Constitution. But the control of this whole subject was a part of the sovereignty of each State, not likely to be surrendered without great jealousy and distrust; and one of the most delicate of the tasks imposed upon the Convention was that

of determining how far and for what purposes the people of the several States should be asked to confer upon the general government this very important part of their political sovereignty. One thing, however, was clear; that, if the general government was to be charged with the duty of undertaking the common defence against an external enemy, or of suppressing insurrection, or of protecting the republican character of the State constitutions, it must either maintain at all times a regular army suitable for any such emergency, or it must have some power to employ the militia. The latter, when compared with the resource of standing armies, is, as was said of the institution of chivalry, "the cheap defence of nations"; and although no nation has found, or will be likely to find, it sufficient, without the maintenance of some regular troops, the nature of the liberties inherent in the construction of the American governments, and the whole current of the feelings of the American people, would lead them to the adoption of a policy that might restrain, rather than encourage, the growth of a permanent army. So far, therefore, it seemed manifest, from the duties which were to be imposed on the government of the Union, that it must have a power to employ the militia of the States; and this would of necessity draw after it, if it was to be capable of a beneficial exercise, the power to regulate, to some extent, their organization, armament, and discipline.

But the first draft of the Constitution, prepared by the committee of detail, contained no express

power on this subject, excepting "to call forth the aid of the militia in order to execute the laws of the Union, enforce treaties, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions." Possibly it might have been contended, after the Constitution had gone into operation, that the general power to make all laws necessary and proper for the execution of the powers specially enumerated, would enable Congress to prescribe regulations of the force which they were authorized to employ, since the authority to employ would seem to involve the right to have the force kept in a fit state to be employed. But this would have been a remote implication of power, too hazardous to be trusted; and it at once occurred to one the wisest and most sagacious of the statesmen composing the Convention, who, though he never signed the Constitution, exercised a great and salutary influence in its preparation, Mr. Mason of Virginia, that an express and unequivocal power of regulating the militia must be conferred. He stated the obvious truth, that, if the disciplining of the militia were left in the hands of the States, they never would concur in any one system; and as it might be difficult to persuade them to give up their power over the whole, he was at first disposed to adopt the plan of placing a part of the militia under the control of the general government, as a select force. But he, as well as others, became satisfied that this plan would not produce a uniformity of discipline throughout

1 Art. VII. § 1 of the first draft. Elliot, V. 379.

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2 Ibid. 440.