Revitalization of the State Militias
A Review of Edwin Vieira's The Sword And Sovereignty
by Nelson Hultberg
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On April 19,
1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord on the outskirts of Boston
ignited the conflict that led to the most momentous political event of
man's history - the Declaration of Independence and the birth of
America. In the early morning hours of that day, a command of British
troops was dispatched from Boston to search out and confiscate stores
of militia weapons and supplies at Concord. On the way they confronted a
small and unimposing band of armed American militia at Lexington. The
British Major John Pitcairn shouted out, "Ye villains, ye Rebels,
disperse; damn you, disperse! Lay down your arms!"
The American
militia were under the command of Captain, John Parker; and their
orders were to remain non-antagonistic to the British. They were
outnumbered by almost ten to one. So why didn't they lay down their
arms when ordered to do so? "Because," says constitutional scholar
Edwin Vieira, "free men with a duty to keep and bear arms never
willingly lay down their arms. And at Lexington, none of them did." The
heroic militia Captain John Parker warned his men, "if they mean to
have a war let it begin here." And begin it did.
Importance of the State Militias
With his newest book,The Sword and Sovereignty,
Edwin Vieira, Jr., has given us a magisterial work that meticulously
documents the history of the early American Militias and why similar
units must be revitalized today if we are to adequately confront our
disintegration as a society and restore the republic that the Founders
gave us. It is a book that will profoundly shock 98 percent of
Americans. It is so overpowering in its legal logic and constitutional
veracity that the intellectuality of Cicero and Plutarch comes to mind
as one reads the prose. It is not a book that can be read lightly; it
demands a tolerance for legal thought and abstract conceptualization.
But
for those "men of the mind" who understand the importance of ideas in
the unfolding of history, the effort will be most rewarding. You will
be shown an entirely new way of seeing things regarding guns, militia,
the Second Amendment, homeland security, how they intertwine, and how
they have been grossly misrepresented by quisling, pseudo-experts of
the establishment.For the first 125 years of our history, the "Militia
of the several States" was a highly honored institution that played a
vital role in preserving the concept of federalism upon which our
system of freedom depends. This ended with the Militia Act of 1903,
which shifted the "Militia of the several States" into National Guard
units under the auspices of the national military. State and local
control was eliminated.
In addition,
as Vieira tells us, over the past century decades "of disuse, misuse,
and abuse have so thoroughly muddled the meaning of 'Militia' in
contemporary American political discourse that the word is hardly ever
encountered except as invective, usually well-freighted with
vituperative adjectives such as 'extremist' and 'violent', broadcast by
the enemies of constitutional government (and their dupes and other
'useful idiots') for the purpose of intimidating into silence the people
they intend to oppress as soon as the vast majority of Americans has
been thoroughly disarmed through one form of 'gun control' or another."
Anybody
today with a modicum of brains can see that our nation is being
transformed into a "first-class police state." Homeland Security and
Washington's outrageous "Patriot Acts" are Alice in Wonderland
institutions that have taken us a giant step down the path to Orwell's
nightmare. Our military-industrial complex grows exponentially. The
Federal Government has become a Godzilla of ugliness and menace. Our
Congressmen are Machiavellian schemers wallowing in sophistic mazes and
treason to truth.
Vieira's answer to this pernicious
evolution is startling. As with all big thinkers in history, he asks us
(like Steve Jobs did to his comrades at Apple) to "Think Different!"
He maintains that America cannot be saved unless she revitalizes her
original concept of the "Militia of the several States."
The Sword and Sovereignty explains
- in 1,945 pages of text and 305 pages of appendixes, tables, and
notes - why this must be done and how to constitutionally do it.
Magisterial scholarship is putting it mildly.
History and Restoration of the Militias
The book
explores the legal history of the pre-constitutional Militia statutes
of colonial times to demonstrate that armed and well-regulated Militias
formed on the state level are what the Founders intended for the
provision of "homeland security." The monstrosity of today's
centralized Homeland Security Department in Washington is not needed; a
revival of the "Militia of the several States" and unequivocal
acknowledgement of the people's right to bear arms will give us
everything we require. This will decentralize "security" in the country
and help greatly to check the ominous peril of the military-industrial
complex.
Many Americans will perceive this as a
quixotic attempt to turn back the clock and revive a hopeless
anachronism that prevailed in the era of flintlock muskets and
tri-cornered caps. Not so. Vieira demonstrates his points legally with
the same overpowering logic that Ludwig von Mises puts forth
economically in Human
Action. Mises was relentless in
rational destructions of the socialists' sinister fallacies. So too is
Vieira in his dismantling of the arguments of today's collectivist
control freaks.After he traces the legal history of pre-constitutional
Militia and gun statutes, he then lays out seventeen fundamental
principles (in seventeen chapters) to define how the constitutional
structure and service of a revitalized "Militia of the several States"
would be validated. When one is done reading these seventeen chapters,
he sees clearly that a revitalization of the state Militias is
constitutionally legitimate and workable in the modern day. Whether or
not they can be revived is, of course, an open question. There is huge
opposition in all establishment schools, bureaucracies, and courts to
such a radical restructuring of society's power relationships. But
Vieira demonstrates in compelling fashion why and how it can be done if
Americans still have the will.
One of the
most profound parts of the book is its explanation in Chapter One of
the present day fallacy of "judicial supremacy," showing how the
Supreme Court is not the ultimate judge of "what the law is." Congress
stands above the Court and may stipulate how the Judges are to
interpret the laws. But most importantly, the People stand above
Congress, for they are the creators of Congress via the Constitution. WE
THE PEOPLE rule in America, not congressional despots and judicial
oligarchs.
As the famous eighteenth century jurist, Sir William Blackstone, observed in
Commentaries on the Laws of England,
"whenever a question arises between the society at large and any
magistrate vested with powers originally delegated by that society, it
must be decided by the voice of the society itself: there is not upon
earth any other tribunal to resort to."Thus the salvation of America
must come with reassertion of the citizens' fundamental right to decide
the ultimate issues of their lives. Through political techniques such
as nullification on the part of juries and state governments the
overweening excesses of today's Federal Government and its bureaucratic
thugs can be brought to heel.
It is important to understand that Vieira
is NOT proposing "private" Militias, the likes of which we have seen in
recent years from racial supremacy groups and neo-Nazi extremists.
What Vieira is proposing is the revitalization of governmentally created and legitimized Militia units among
the states that our Constitution calls irrevocably for. These will be
legislated and regulated by the state governments. They will be
official government bodies in all the towns and cities of the land, not
rogue factions that operate from wilderness hideouts. The leftist
establishment media will, no doubt, attempt to portray Vieira's plan as
the promotion of wilderness wackos reveling in burning crosses and
white sheets; but hopefully learned Americans will recognize such smear
tactics as the inexcusable liberal vacuity that it is.
Benefits of Militia Restoration
There are so many benefits to such a
revitalization. As Vieira writes, "Today, at every level of the federal
system, America is woefully unprepared to deal effectively with
hurricanes, tornados, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters;
with major industrial accidents, such as leakages from offshore
oil-drilling rigs or meltdowns of nuclear power plants; with epidemics
and pandemics; with crop failures and possibly attendant famines; with
invasions through the
Volkerwanderung of illegal
immigration; with economic breakdowns, and in particular a collapse of
this country's monetary and banking systems; and with the myriad
threats posed by real terrorism. '[W]ell regulated Militia',
however, not only could deal with the consequences of such events, but
also could forefend many of them."In addition, the Militia can be used
to investigate the constitutionality of the laws that they execute,
they can supervise honest elections, they can help to repel invasions,
they can help local police, they can be very instrumental in defeating
the machinations of globalism, etc.
Another
crucial point to grasp is that the revitalized Militia will not be in
anyway a part of the regular military, nor will they be under the thumb
of Congress. This is the way the Constitution established them in the
beginning, and this is the way they must be revived. They will be
institutions of unity and defense at the state government level. Their
revival will begin the vital process of restoring "federalism."
Owning Guns Not Enough
Vieira explains that the individual right
to bear arms as a defense against tyranny will not suffice in and of
itself. "For, confronted by usurpers and tyrants deploying 'standing
armies' and para-militarized police forces, or by hordes of
foreign invaders, armed individuals in isolation or in small groups
would likely prove feckless."In other words, just the right to bear arms
is not enough. What is necessary is the establishment of collective,
coordinated state Militias. This is why the Second Amendment says, "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 pre-constitutional colonial and state statutes during the
150 years leading up to 1787, demonstrate irrefutably that Militias
organized on the state and local levels were held by the patriots of the
era to be vital for the defense of freedom and order in the republic.
The modern day is no different; in fact, such institutions are even
more vital. Upon this right of individual and local self-defense, there
can be no compromise.
Most
libertarians and conservatives are aware of the recent testimony in
front of Congress by Suzanna Hupp regarding our right to bear arms. She
was one of the victims of the tragic Luby's massacre in Killeen, Texas
in 1991 and lost both her parents to the gun-toting madman. She
testified to our Washington solons that if she had been allowed to carry
the gun she owned in her purse, she would have been able to kill the
madman and would have saved numerous lives including her parents.
Then she
topped off her heroic testimony with these searing words as she stared
Senator Charles Schumer and his imperious cronies right in the eyes: "I
am sitting here getting more and more fed up with all of this talk
about these pieces of machinery having no legitimate sporting purpose,
no legitimate hunting purpose. People, that is not the point of the
Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting....It
is about our rights, all of our rights to be able to protect ourselves
from all of you guys up there."
How to Bring About the Revitalization
The Militias of early America in both pre and post Constitution eras were basically
compulsory institutions.
The states mandated that all able-bodied men were subject to
membership and duty. In other words the states had the right to impress
citizens into the Militia. This, of course, will not be acceptable to
the libertarian community of the modern day. So if the Militias are to
be revived, they will have to be voluntarily joined as Independent
Militia Companies formed by the state governments. And this is the
procedure that Vieira advocates. Independent Militia Companies must
spring up under the auspices of the state governments via
volunteers.Vieira goes into detail, however, explaining how the early
American viewpoint was that membership in the Militias had to be
compulsory, and that eventually they should be formed into such units
as Americans are educated in this upcoming century toward their duties as well as their rights
in
maintaining a free republic. He makes a very passionate case for
regaining the "all for one and one for all" spirit that animated early
Americans' willingness to tolerate compulsory membership in their local
Militias. Being a political libertarian, I would disagree on this point
and rely permanently on voluntary units as the undergirding structure
to revitalization. The Militias might not work as efficiently, and
their memberships might not be spread as evenly among all citizens, but
they will be a lot safer units of government under volunteer
recruitment policies.The Founders understood the power lusting nature
of man and the necessity for citizens to be armed and organized at all
times as protection from their rulers. Suzanna Hupp understands this.
Edwin Vieira understands it. And now we as a people must come to
realize it. Our right to bear arms has nothing to do with duck hunting.
State Militias have nothing to do with wilderness wackos.
"The struggle that has been thrust upon Americans," writes Vieira, "is not one to
preserve the uniquely American way of life, but to restore it." The plague of factions and collectivist usurpers have decimated the republic. "Today, the true America exists only as fleeting, dissipating shadows of her former self."
The Sword and Sovereignty's
message will go a long way toward restoring that resplendent America
we lost. It is a profoundly patriotic work of powerful impact that can
direct our intelligentsia toward a rediscovery of our real roots. Any
thinking man or woman today who fears for America's survival needs to
tackle this book. It is available in CD format at
.
Nelson Hultberg * February 10 2013
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Nelson Hultberg is a freelance writer in Dallas, Texas and the Director of Americans for a Free Republic
www.afr.org. His articles have appeared in such publications as the
Dallas Morning News, The American Conservative, Insight, The Freeman, and
Liberty, as well as on numerous Internet sites such as The Daily Bell, Financial Sense, and Safe Haven. He is also the author of
The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values to be released in March of 2013. Email him at:
nelshultberg@aol.com
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