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FIVE WEEKS BEFORE the final ratification of the Bill of Rights in
December 1791, the regular Army of the United States of America, under
the command of Revolutionary War hero Arthur St. Clair, was utterly
destroyed at the Battle of the Wabash by an alliance of Western Indians
led by the great war chiefs Little Turtle and Blue Jacket. It was a
worse disaster than the Little Big Horn. Only 45 members of St. Clair’s
1300-person expedition which included regulars, militia, and camp
followers survived the ambush unscathed.
This is the real historical context in which the meaning of the Second
Amendment must be interpreted: the national army had been annihilated,
the First Nations had reclaimed the Ohio Valley, and the British were
emboldened to retain the Western forts (Michilmakinac and Detroit) that
they had agreed to surrender in the treaty of 1787. A “well-regulated
militia” of armed people was the only thing standing between George
Washington and the return of King George III. Or, between white people
and successful rebellions of slaves and Native Americans.
Odd, to say the least, that the left-liberal media has so neglected this
background, particularly since it speaks to “original intent,” that
fetish of Scalia and much of his party. More importantly, why haven’t we
taken advantage of the GOP’s Salafist interpretation of the Constitution
to revive the classical (Charles) Beardsian critique of this
slaveowners’ relic? The alternative tradition in American history,
embraced by Jefferson, Lincoln, and Wilson, has always asserted the
priority of the Declaration of Independence as the nation’s foundational
document and natural law.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/short-takes/a-note-from-mike-davis-about-the-second-amendment
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