WILLIAM CHARLES COLE CLAIBORNE

For most of the history of the United States – especially in the governments of our Founding Fathers, there was an extreme antithesis to defense spending and military preparedness a fact that conservatives who look to the Founding Fathers as models and legal precedents for everything that we do today generally do not realize as they lobby for defense spending. The change really took place after Pearl Harbor and WWII where America was totally unprepared for war.

The British were about to attack New Orleans in the War of 1812 with an invasion force of their best professional soldiers. The Americans needed all the help they could get and Claiborne and the Military commander, General Andrew Jackson, came up with this idea to try and get the pirates and smugglers pardoned if they would fight against the British. They did and General Jackson with his augmented army routed the British in the last battle of the war. (It was actually fought after the war was over, but the word that the peace treaty had been signed had not yet reached either side.)

The British were about to attack New Orleans in the War of 1812 with an invasion force of their best professional soldiers. The Americans needed all the help they could get and Claiborne and the Military commander, General Andrew Jackson, came up with this idea to try and get the pirates and smugglers pardoned if they would fight against the British. They did and General Jackson with his augmented army routed the British in the last battle of the war. (It was actually fought after the war was over, but the word that the peace treaty had been signed had not yet reached either side.)

For most of the history of the United States – especially in the governments of our Founding Fathers, there was an extreme antithesis to defense spending and military preparedness a fact that conservatives who look to the Founding Fathers as models and legal precedents for everything that we do today generally do not realize as they lobby for defense spending. The change really took place after Pearl Harbor and WWII where America was totally unprepared for war.