I am reading David Young‘s book, The Origin of the Second Amendment , and have found it fascinating how much fear there was with a large federal government. The question I have, how did the founders separate a rebellious mob versus an armed group taking on tyranny? The founders expressed examples in state born bills of rights where the militia was to be called up to stop rebellion. The founders also establish a clause where a standing army must be used to stop rebellion. Was tyranny more obvious in the 1780’s then today?
Yes, Tyranny was more obvious in the 1780’s.
In order to wield tyranny back then you had to have weapons and men willing to use them to impose your will.
If you were a local Mayor/Governor etc and started massing men with weapons and onerous taxes your going to get a visit by the Militia.
This was why we seperated the Military and Political parties as far apart as possible.
Take a look at the Whiskey Rebellion and Hamiltons role in the whole mess. Hamilton didn’t see himself as a Tyrant, but he didn’t mind living well off of the corn farmers who were living on the edge of Civilization.
What I’m saying was there was nobody who wanted to be seen as a Tyrant, but there was plenty of it to go around.
Guys like Hamilton dug themselves deep in to the .Gov to allow the Military to Bully people for him.
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