all our base are belong to us

An early nineteenth century conception of federal power that just made me throw up in my mouth a little, with emphasis added:

The idea that the United States cannot raise a regular army in any other mode than by accepting the voluntary service of individuals, is believed to be repugnant to the uniform construction of all grants of power, and equally so to the first principles and leading objects of the Federal compact. An unqualified grant of power gives the means necessary to carry it into effect. This is an universal maxim, which admits of no exception. Equally true it is, that the conservation of the State is a duty paramount to all others. The commonwealth has a right to the service of all its citizens; or, rather, the citizens composing the commonwealth have a right, collectively and individually, to the service of each other, to repel any danger which may be menaced. The manner in which the service is to be apportioned among the citizens, and rendered by them, are objects of legislation...

In support of this right in Congress, the militia service affords a conclusive proof and striking example. The organization of the militia is an act of public authority, not a voluntary association.

-- James Monroe (Acting Secretary of War), Message to the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, October 17, 1814.

Monroe goes on to add that, hey, no worries, the government mostly means to take the "unmarried and youthful, who can best defend it, and best be spared." The whole message is a fabulous muddle, puddled with curious reasoning and contradictory arguments about power and compulsion: We're all in it together, and responsible to one another as equal participants in a social contract, so we totally own your ass and you better knuckle the fuck under.

My favorite part is the great "or, rather..." We own your ass, or, rather, you own your ass, so we own your ass, because we're you. Monroe's vision of the militia went over poorly, and was a distinctly minority view, but it was nevertheless what an important policymaker thought of the militia in the early republic: He thought it wasn't a voluntary public institution, but rather a way for the state to capture the service of its citizens for the purpose of its own preservation -- not theirs, but its. It seems to me that we don't hear that part of the story very often in our histories of the early republic.

I also thought that Monroe's claim about ends and means -- "An unqualified grant of power gives the means necessary to carry it into effect. This is an universal maxim, which admits of no exception." -- sounded a lot like, say for example, David Addington. Recent theories of power seem to me to not be all that recent.