re: #149 goddamnedfrank

By your logic Article 1, Section 8 doesn’t require the government to “maintain” an army as a government institution either, only to “raise and support armies.” Contrast this to the the language that requires the legislature to “provide and maintain a navy.” As a fierce opponent of private armies, I find this piddly linguistic distinction to be utterly meaningless.

Two points:

1. The government did not initially form an army. That took a few years, and that first army, the American Legion (nods to Cato) was used to subdue Indians who were violently opposing settlers moving onto lands that had been ceded by treaty to the US but where their people had lived for centuries. (Sorry for the digression.)

2. It could argued that things are different between the Army and the Post Office, since the latter does not involve the use of force.