There’s been a lot of talk lately about an article by Thom Hartmann on the Second Amendment. Hartmann argues that the purpose of the amendment was to preserve the slave-patrol militias in the southern states. I think Kevin Gutzman, who posted on this on Facebook, has things about right.
It is true that this was one of the rationales behind the Second Amendment, but as ample testimony from countless figures of importance indicates, far from the only one. But if Hartmann is going to paint Second Amendment supporters as disreputable for this reason, he is painting with a broad brush indeed. Article IV’s Guarantee Clause, which guarantees to every state in the Union a republican form of government, was partly intended to indicate that the federal government could intervene to suppress slave rebellions in the states. Is guaranteeing a republican form of government in the states disreputable now?
The Declaration of Independence itself was supported in some quarters in part because the colonial governors, appointed by the Crown, would thereby have been prevented from interfering with slavery. Is the cause of American independence now tainted forever? Will Thom Hartmann take up a petition for reunion with Britain?