George B. McClellan Quotes

In the 1930s, led by the conservative Republicans, there was an isolationist subset of our population and the Congress that blocked all efforts to increase defense spending and readiness. The attitude towards the military was terrible. After WWII, the Republicans, realizing the weakness of their earlier political philosophy, flip flopped and went to the other extreme becoming hyper pro-military with little oversight of the needs.

At one level this quotation shows that Congress made the rules and regulations of the armed forces and not the Commander in Chief or the General Officers. But the quotation is important for several other reasons. First, it is the first federal attempt to regulate alcohol and drinking. It is also what we would regard today as a severe infringement of freedom of speech. Politically, it was very hard for any member of Congress not to support legislation to prevent blasphemy. But these and other examples of over a decade of the Continental Congress legislation persuaded most Americans that Congress was not to be trusted to protect their rights and there was a real need for a Bill of Rights so that much of the early activity of the Continental Congress would not continue.

More than a decade before Hamilton wrote this, a Maryland commission used the phrase “well regulated militia” earlier. (See {588394}.) It would be less than 2 years before the phrase “well regulated militia” would be added into the Constitution in the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights—September 25, 1789. The Maryland resolution was the last of several passed at a meeting by which Maryland endorsed resistance to the British before the actual Revolution. So these resolations would have been widely distributed throughout the colonies and known by the leaders. Whether the drafters of the 2nd Amendment got the phrase from Hamilton’s Federalist 29 or from the Maryland Resolutions is not known but Hamilton’s was much more current. Did he get the phrase from Maryland? Did Congress get it from him? Did Maryland originate the phrase or was there an earlier use that influenced the Maryland drafters? At this point no one is sure, but the phrase is critical to the meaning of the 2nd Amendment because the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the Second Amandment does not apply to individuals but only to the State’s right to bear arms within the “well regulated militia” and not as individual citizens. The right is that of the State government and that is why a state can control guns including banning them if they choose. So an individual in America does not have the constitutional right to bear arms. He may have a state constitutional right but in other states he may not use a gun in certain places and may not possess certain types of guns like hand guns which are illegal in New York, Washington DC and some other places.

History is replete with instances of military coups. In the final analysis, in every country at all times, there is no force in a society that could cope with a military which decides to act on its own. The Founding Fathers were very conscious of this reality and history, hence the firm civilian control of the military in America.

The Shakers were an American religion and pacifists Lincoln learned. He was so impressed with their sincerity and way of life that he exempted Shaker men from the draft—the first conscientious objectors formally recognized in America. However, Lincoln made the statement to the Shakers which greatly impressed them and caused much reflection. Quakers had been pacifists also, but until the Civil War Draft there was no mechanism to test.

Morgan had just left his appointment at Annapolis and traveled to the then Confederate capital, Montgomery, AL to volunteer for the Confederate navy.

Theoretically every male citizen was supposed to serve in the Militia at that time. But if one did not, the penalty was a small fine. It became a status symbol. Those middle and upper class men who could get commissions as officers would serve, but those who did not have the political connections or the money to equip his own troops, would rather pay the fine than serve with men he thought beneath him. There is a , romantic American myth about the Militiamen in Colonial and Revolutionary America—the citizen soldiers who would leave their farms and rise to the military necessity of the day. However, not only were the militia very hard to muster to duty, but most actually didn’t own or have experience with firearms, and the prevailing opinion of knowledgeable military leaders from George Washington on down was that the militia were not very good soldiers. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}

This differed from his public statements where he extolled the militia {613331}, the politically popular thing to do. No wise politician would publicly criticize his own State’s militia.

In early America, there was great concern about a standing army—a military force that exists and is organized in peacetime. History showed the founding fathers that tyrants who siezed power almost always did so by getting control of the standing army. The logic was if there is no standing army, no one can control it and therefore no tyrant can control the country by force. At the time, however, with oceans protecting us, there was penty of time to mobilize a defensive army should any foreign power invade. However, with modern military technology, and the importantance of retaliation as a protective3 strategy, it is virtually impossible to not have a standing army and stoll be secure.

Root was serving as Secretary of War at the time. The army of the United States was in sad shape. Congress did not want to appropriate much money for the military as there was no one to fight any longer. Indians had been subdued, relations with Canada were excellent. Mexico was too weak to be a threat, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans protected against invasion by large forces. The navy was in much better shape and could protect against invasion from abroad anyway. The Republicans then were in control of government and were generally very isolationist. And there was the traditional American animus to a standing Army. See {601390} and {592824} for examples of that attitude. The army itself was a set of individual fiefdoms with nepotism and cronyism rampant with no general staff to have the big picture. Theodore Roosevelt and Root, unlike most other Republicans, wanted to reform and build up the army as well as strengthen the navy,

This was the earliest version of a variant of the great WWII propaganda phrase, “Arsenal of Democracy”. See --{624746} and {624747} for quotations related to this famous phrase.

She was the 5th female member of the House and its first Jewish member. She was the first woman on the House Military Affairs Committee, and was one of the few Republicans who advocated spending for military preparedness. At the time of her service, many Republicans were strict isolationists.