Quick Question

[BuddyLee]

I was wondering on the way home tonight if a draft was unconstitutional. If it is, how is it bypassed?

 

[rraley]

The Constitution does not directly address the issue, but there is some way that one could probably twist it to mean that the draft is unconstitutional....

What I do know is that the founders and many of our leaders until the late 19th Century considered a large standing army during peacetime to be against the spirit of America.

 

[BuddyLee]

What I do know is that the founders and many of our leaders until the late 19th Century considered a large standing army during peacetime to be against the spirit of America.

Why do you think that is so?

Another thought that popped in my head was, if the founding fathers didn't want to include this into the constitution how did they expect to defend the country if someone were to invade it? Perhaps a volunteer army, although that wouldn't defend the 13 colonies IMO, we barely defeated the British with the French at our side plus all 13 were fighting over so many issues over whether to fight in the first place. What say you?

 

[Bustem' Down]

Why do you think that is so?

Another thought that popped in my head was, if the founding fathers didn't want to include this into the constitution how did they expect to defend the country if someone were to invade it? Perhaps a volunteer army, although that wouldn't defend the 13 colonies IMO, we barely defeated the British with the French at our side plus all 13 were fighting over so many issues over whether to fight in the first place. What say you?

Thier original idea was to have a weak fed. government with the state governments ruling. The armies were provided by the individual states when an army was needed, there was no federal army. That's why say during the civil war, the different units were called "23rd New York" and such. All of the members of that unit were from the same state, and probably the same area of the state.

 

[Triggerfish]

we barely defeated the British with the French at our side

It's considered by some as one of the first world wars. It was fought in North America, India, the Caribbean, Netherlands, the Mediterranean, and short raid on England itself.


American allies (or fought against the British)
France
Spain
Netherlands
Sardinia
Kingdom of Mysore


British allies
Madras
minor German states (mostly by providing mercs from Hesse...Hessians)

 

[Triggerfish]

Thier original idea was to have a weak fed. government with the state governments ruling. The armies were provided by the individual states when an army was needed, there was no federal army. That's why say during the civil war, the different units were called "23rd New York" and such. All of the members of that unit were from the same state, and probably the same area of the state.

Plus the govt for most part was isolationist and probably thought a standing army as a waste of money. For most of history, most nations except superpowers such as Rome and China did not have a standing army.

 

[Ken King]

I think it is covered by the Constitution in Article 1 Section 8 where it says Congress has the power; To raise and support Armies. In my mind "raise" equates to conscription.

 

[Tonio]

It's considered by some as one of the first world wars. It was fought in North America, India, the Caribbean, Netherlands, the Mediterranean, and short raid on England itself.

I've read that the Americans had a deliberate strategy of getting other nations involved. England would probably have defeated the colonies if it didn't have to spread its military resources so thinly. In those days, Europe was at war every 20 years or so. John Cleese once joked on Letterman's show that France is the true enemy of England, the two events of the 20th Century being mere aberrations.

 

[Bruzilla]

There are a lot of right answers here, and one need not look any further than intent at the time to pull them together. The Founding Fathers did not want a large standing Army as they felt that the British leadership had misused the military to harass the citizenry and they did not want to duplicate that error. They wanted a small national Army, that could be supplemented by state armies under national control, and they reserved the right to raise a large national army if needed.

 

[BuddyLee]

Thanks all.

 

[alex]

Also, many citizens were required to be part of town Militias - hence the 2nd amendment.

 

[Larry Gude]

Good question...

I was wondering on the way home tonight if a draft was unconstitutional. If it is, how is it bypassed?

This is one of the many questions that always puts the twist on people who are sympathetic to the states rights argument of the South in our Civil War.

Who instituted the first draft on this continent, a draft ordered by the central authority ordering citizens of the several states into forced military service?

President Jefferson Davis and the legislature of the Confederate States of America.

So, to answer your question another way; if the people who most believed in limited federal, or central, authority as the spine of the US Constitution proposed, adopted and accepted a draft, well, there you go.

Lincoln later followed suit using the same argument that Davis did; necessity.