There is nothing in the Constitution that allows American citizens the right to bear arms out of fear of or in conflict with our own federal government. That is a mistaken notion of the Second Amendment-obsessed right wing.
It was not long after our first federal government was formed with George Washington as president that such a notion was predictably put forth.
There was a federal excise tax authorized by Congress on whiskey which was objected to by some "backwoods distillers" in western Pennsylvania in 1794. Word reached the federal capital, then in Philadelphia, that these men were organizing and taking up arms against the officials and magistrates in the western part of the state tasked with enforcing the law. The rebels swore to use whatever means necessary, including violence, to oppose payment of the tax.
President Washington correctly believed a fatal precedent would be set if the rebels' armed resistance to the law was allowed to stand. He wisely understood that if any group or individual opposed to any law Congress passed were allowed to take up arms in opposition, democratic government would not last long.
In October 1794, he organized the “militias” of four states into a federal army of 12,000 and himself led it across the state to confront the rebels. About halfway to their destination, Washington was met by two officials from the rebellious region. They informed him, as he wrote in his diary, “that it was not merely the excise tax on whiskey their opposition aimed at but to all law and government.”
Washington warned them, “if the soldiers entered the western counties no group shall approach them armed. If a single shot were directed at them there would be no accounting for the consequences. "
As Washington hoped, when what became known as the “Whiskey Rebels” learned that a large federal army was approaching from the east led by President Washington and that he meant business, the rebels dispersed without any violence. Washington was very conciliatory. He pardoned two insurrectionists who had been sentenced to death. One wry observer noted, “Not a single person was hurt, virgins who were so inclined slept undisturbed and the army paid for everything it used.”
Washington was very pleased with the outcome. He believed an important precedent had been set and he was also very relieved there was no bloodshed.
It is the paranoid and conspiracy theory riddled right wing that is really resistant to all laws and government that puts forth the idea that the Constitution allows them to take up arms against their own government. The idea of democracy is that conflicts are resolved through debate and compromise in state legislatures and Congress, not by force of arms.
George Washington was right 228 years ago. He is still right.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
