John Locke

Of the State of War

Locke’s third chapter is on the State of War. It is an expository on the concept presented in the previous chapter regarding when one individual broaches another’s right to life, liberty and property. In the Of the State of Nature, we learned that one person broaches another’s natural rights he declares himself an enemy to … Read more

Of Militia

Americans suffer from a political disability. They no longer understand the intent of the most fundamental organs of our government. If you as the typical American ask what a militia is, they will tell likely you that it is a group of people playing army in the woods. Or even worse, they will tell that it is people organizing to fight the government. If you ask them how a militia is formed, they will reply that someone just gets a bunch of friends to follow them. Appoints himself as leader and others as subordinate officers. All of this seems to proceed out of a mythology surrounding the American War for Independence.

There is an idea that local leaders simply decided to form militia companies, and other local people fell in behind them. Then they all just marched off to fight the British. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

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Of Martial Law

Before I begin my discourses on Locke and constitutional government my wife suggested that I needed to write on the definitions of two terms: martial law and militia. I am going to discuss martial law first.

Currently, my wife and I are reading an “apocalyptic” book which deals with life after an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) takes out the power grid. I read many series of such books to my son Jarrod in the last years of his life. Through out this genre of books there is a consistent misunderstanding of marital law. Provisions for martial law are included in our State Constitutions, and has definite meaning. The martial law is a lawful power of government, and proper understanding of it and its lawful implementation is important.

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