what does it mean to establish justice what does it mean to provide for the common defense

Why Provide for the Common Defence?

Why Provide for the Mutual Defense?

January 19, 2011 9 min read Download Report

Mackenzie Eaglen

Senior Inquiry Fellow

Mackenzie Eaglen specializes in defense strategy, military readiness and the defense budget.

The Declaration of Independence reminds u.s.a. that all people have inalienable rights—amidst them, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, the U.S. Constitution creates a government of the people to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the mutual defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

Why did the Founding Fathers believe that the federal government must provide for the common defense?

The weakness of the thirteen states under the Manufactures of Confederation, earlier the Constitution, convinced the Founders that the nation needed a stronger regime, including a stronger armed forces. The Founders were careful to grant the federal regime only the few, limited powers that were necessary for it to carry out its aims. Nether the Constitution, most powers are reserved to the states, or to the people.

The federal government is concerned only with issues that bear upon the welfare of the unabridged nation. It has the sectional ability, for example, to create an army, to declare war, and to brand treaties. Indeed, equally James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers, "the operations of the federal authorities volition be most all-encompassing and important in times of war and danger."[1] For the Founders, a chief and central task of the federal authorities was to "provide for the common defense."

The Founders realized that only an organized and professional war machine could respond to both domestic and foreign threats. That is why they authorized the building of forts, the creation of the U.Southward. Navy, and the founding of W Point. In times of peace, the United states has frequently been tempted to believe that information technology could safely disarm. The experience of the Founders convinced them that no peace was and so secure that it could be relied upon with balls, and no nation was so safe that it did not demand to maintain sound and reliable defenses. America has regularly had to relearn this wisdom, often at great cost in coin and men.

Simply the Founders were also suspicious of standing armies. They knew that, in Europe, standing armies had been used past monarchies to oppress the people. In order to avert this danger, while providing for the nation'southward security, the Founders made the common defence force a shared responsibility of Congress and the President, the elected (and separate) branches of government. This ensured the American military would serve the nation, not subvert the rule of the people.

Thus, Congress declares war and funds the armed forces: the Constitution gives Congress power to "raise and back up armies" and to "provide and maintain a navy." The President commands the armed services and controls their operations: equally Commander in Primary, he is obliged to defend and protect the nation. In his role as the state'southward master diplomat, he likewise seeks to go along the peace.

How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless nosotros could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation? – James Madison
January 19, 1788

The American Founders held out the possibility of more than peaceful relations amidst nations. But they withal understood that "the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace."[2] As Thomas Paine warned, information technology would not be enough to "expect to reap the blessings of freedom." Americans would have to "undergo the fatigues of supporting it."[iii] Supporting freedom and defending the nation would crave public spending on the nation's defense forces in peacetime. As President George Washington asserted in his Start Annual Message, delivered in 1790, the "most effectual means of preserving peace" is "to be prepared for war."[four]

During his presidency, Washington warned against leaving the nation's security "to the uncertainty of procuring a warlike apparatus at the moment of public danger."[five] By so, it would be as well late. In his Farewell Address, Washington urged Americans to remember "that timely disbursements to gear up for danger frequently foreclose much greater disbursements to repel it."[6]

Washington believed defense spending was necessary because he, similar all the Founders, knew the history of wars in Europe and had experience with North African pirate attacks against American aircraft. Washington's generation knew the world was a dangerous place. Equally John Jay put information technology, "nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting annihilation by it." Furthermore, dictators or "absolute monarchs" would often make war even "when their nations are to get zero by it, only for purposes and objects just personal."[7]

Almost if not all of the Founding Fathers agreed that when America was threatened, the nation had to respond clearly and forcefully. Afterwards the United States obtained its independence in 1787, it lost the protection of the French Navy. Presently, the U.South. had to defend its sailors and commerce against Northward African pirates enabled by the Barbary States of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. At offset, Congress followed the tradition of the European countries and appropriated what would today be millions of dollars as tribute to the pirates. These bribe payments but encouraged more pirate attacks and more demands for money.

Urged on by the public, Thomas Jefferson, elected in 1801, refused to acquiesce to Tripoli'south demand for an immediate payment of $225,000 and annual payments of $25,000. Instead, Jefferson deployed frigates to defend America's interests in the Mediterranean. Tunis and Algiers responded to America's testify of force by breaking their brotherhood with Tripoli. Hostilities with Tripoli only concluded after American country forces took the fight to Tripoli, threatening to capture the city and depose its leader.

This episode taught America that bribery and appeasement encourage aggressors. Only an American Navy able to patrol the earth's oceans would bring peace on the loftier seas. As American interests have expanded and technology has evolved, America has built a modern military. But the essence of American policy has not changed: strength is the best and safest path to peace and security.

America'southward Founders believed that peace through strength is preferable—militarily, financially, and morally—to allowing state of war to come through weakness. That is why, over ii hundred years agone, Thomas Jefferson advised George Washington that "the power of making war oft prevents information technology."[8] In providing for the common defense, the goal of the Founders was to build a military sufficiently powerful and capable that America's enemies preferred non to challenge it. In his Good day Address, Washington hoped the day would soon come when "belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon the states, volition not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, equally our involvement, guided by justice, shall counsel."[ix]

American leaders in the 20th century agreed with Washington and Jefferson, and have followed their policies. President and former general Dwight D. Eisenhower stated in his ain farewell address to the nation in 1961 that "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our artillery must exist mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction."[x]

Like the Founding Fathers, Eisenhower did not want a "military-industrial circuitous" to dominate the United States: instead, again like the Founders, he wanted a powerful military under noncombatant control, alongside a limited federal government. The American people accept understood and respected this wisdom. In the words of Ronald Reagan in 1982, "Our war machine strength is a prerequisite to peace, just permit information technology be clear we maintain this forcefulness in the hope it will never exist used."[11]

A truly successful army is 1 that, because of its strength and power and dedication, volition not be called upon to fight, for no ane will dare to provoke it. – Ronald Reagan
May 27, 1981

Equally Reagan recognized, America's war machine forcefulness exists to secure the blessings of ordered freedom for the American people. The rights enshrined in our Constitution are merely safe in practice when that constitutional order is dedicated by acceptable ability. It is the federal government's responsibility to maintain that power, and to bring it to bear against nations or enemies that threaten America's security or interests, and thereby its freedoms.

Throughout America's history, its citizens have believed that an America capable of safeguarding and advancing their inalienable rights and freedoms would be a shining city upon a hill. Just, in the words of George Washington, "There is a rank due to the The states among nations which will be withheld, if not admittedly lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avert insult, we must exist able to repel it; if nosotros want to secure peace, ane of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times fix for war."[12]

Under the Constitution, the responsibleness to clinch peace by maintaining our national defenses rests first with the federal government. America's common defense is therefore the primary responsibility of the United States authorities—a responsibility that in the cease makes it possible for us safely to savour our many freedoms. By providing for the common defense force, the Constitution secures the inalienable rights recognized in the Proclamation of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Mackenzie Eaglen is a Enquiry Fellow for National Security Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

Enduring Truths

• President George Washington, First Almanac Message to Congress , Jan eight, 1790
  In his first Country of the Wedlock accost, Washington recommended that the Senate and the House devote detail attention to "providing for the common defense force."
• General Douglas MacArthur, Farewell Speech , May 12, 1962
  General MacArthur'south words on duty, honor, and country to the Corps of Cadets at W Point are a testimony to the value of the American armed forces, and a salute to its tradition of professional service.
• Ronald Reagan, Kickoff Inaugural Address , January 20, 1981
  President Reagan's voice communication of assurance and renewal promised to "bank check and reverse the growth of government," but also to "maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be, knowing that if nosotros do then we have the best run a risk of never having to use that strength."

Current Issues

• AMERICAN LEADERSHIP. Arthur Brooks, Ph.D., Edwin Feulner, Ph.D., and William Kristol, "Peace Doesn't Continue Itself," Oct 4, 2010.
  According to the Constitution, the power over the bag, meaning the power to spend money, rests with Congress. In this important statement, iii bourgeois leaders, including the President of The Heritage Foundation, urge Congress and the Administration to make the example for armed forces force equally a primal role of an overall strategy of American leadership.
• DEFENSE REQUIREMENTS. American Enterprise Constitute, Foreign Policy Initiative, and The Heritage Foundation, "Defending Defense: Setting the Record Direct on U.Southward. Military Spending Requirements," October 14, 2010.
  Over the past xx years, administrations of both political parties have underfunded the military machine. Today, as the economy stalls and the government appears to be unable to control spending in other areas, defence spending is under attack again. The arguments for defense cuts are faulty. This articulation publication presents short, factual rebuttals of the myths that are driving the fence on defence force spending.
• MISSILE DEFENSE. Mackenzie Eaglen, "Why Missile Defense," August 3, 2010.
  The threats facing America are real. In the by decade, the number of nuclear states has grown from six to ix, and 28 countries have ballistic missile capabilities. Read Heritage's summary of the need for an constructive system of missile defense to protect America from these threats.
• Defence force LOOKING Forwards. Senator Jim Talent and Heath Hall, "Sowing the Wind: The Disuse of American Ability and Its Consequences," Spring 2009.
  Since the end of World War II, the reality and the perception of American military forcefulness has deterred adversaries and immune the world's democracies to focus on affairs, international cooperation, economic trade, and constructive engagement to protect the integrity of the international lodge. In this service by service analysis, Heritage experts prove that American ability has been allowed to decay and explain why leaders need to make decisive changes soon. If they practise non, all volition reap the consequences.

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[1] James Madison, The Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 45, Jan 26, 1788.

[2] Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, January 1833, at http://world wide web.constitution.org/js/js_004.htm (accessed Nov 15, 2010).

[three] Thomas Paine, "The American Crisis, No. 4," September 12, 1777.

[4] George Washington, "First Almanac Message to Congress on the State of the Union," January 8, 1790.

[5] George Washington, "Fifth Annual Address Message," Dec iii, 1793.

[half dozen] George Washington, "Farewell Accost," September 19, 1796.

[7] John Jay, The Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 4, November 7, 1787.

[viii] Thomas Jefferson, In a Letter to George Washington, Dec four, 1788.

[nine] George Washington, "Goodbye Accost."

[x] Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Farewell Address," January 17, 1961.

[11] Ronald Reagan, "Promoting Republic and Peace," June 8, 1982.

[12] George Washington, "5th Almanac Address Message."

Authors

Mackenzie Eaglen

Senior Research Swain

filescousine.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/why-provide-the-common-defense

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