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ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: ARMED POLITICAL POWER IN VIRGINIA, 1648-1791 Christian Seitz Vieweg, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor James A. Henretta Department of History This dissertation offers an analysis of the political, ideological, and legal ori- gins of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution that significantly departs from the current conventions and concerns of constitutional scholars and his- torians. Succinctly stated, this is a political account about the armed political rights of Virginians in relation to the military power of the federal government—not another essay concerning the highly politicized yet largely apolitical merits of private gun ownership and use. My goal is to understand why Virginians feared national military power and sought constitutional protections against its misuse as an instrument of armed oppression. The first segment examines the origins and evolution of the Radical Whig ideology that condemned standing armies as a threat to civil liberty and celebrated citizen militias as the safest means to execute military and police power. It also con- trasts that theory to the practical utilization of armies and militias in Virginia during wars and domestic rebellions, and examines the development of semiprofessional forces under statutory law. While the militia rarely met theoretical expectations as a military force, it remained valuable for purposes of social control. The remaining chapters investigate how Virginians reformed their sword dur- ing the Second, Third, and Fourth Revolutionary Conventions to combat Great Brit- ain’s standing army. Then, the dissertation examines the crucial Fifth Convention with respect to Article Thirteen of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, which provided constitutional safeguards against the misuse of military and police power. Finally, it evaluates the Virginia Ratifying Convention, where an attempt was made to provide protections against the military clauses in the federal Constitution with a modified version of Article Thirteen. The resultant Second Amendment was an abridged syn- thesis of revised Article Thirteen that fell far short of expectations. For many Vir- ginians, the Second Amendment was a feeble shield that did not effectively protect the people from the potential abuses of the national government’s sword. TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: ARMED POLITICAL POWER IN VIRGINIA, 1648-1791 By Christian Seitz Vieweg Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Professor James A. Henretta, Chair Professor Herman Belz Professor Whitman H. Ridgway Professor Richard Bell Professor Stephen Elkin © Copyright by Christian Seitz Vieweg 2007 To the memory of Carl Frederick Vieweg, Private 33rd Infantry Division, A.E.F. 1917-1919 Robert Seitz Vieweg, Corporal 82nd Airborne Division 1943-1946 Carroll Eugene Romig, Private 501st Army Security Communications Reconnaissance Group 1956-1958 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work would never have been completed without the assistance and en- couragement of certain individuals. To my adviser, Dr. James A. Henretta, I owe a special debt of gratitude for his incomparable guidance, advice, and support. I am also indebted to the faculty at George Mason University, in particular Drs. Peter Hen- riques, Roy Rosenzweig, Jane Censer, and Rosemarie Zagarri, who provided the ini- tial inspiration and encouragement to pursue my doctorate degree at the University of Maryland. My deepest thanks must go to my wife, Kathryn, for her patience and her love. I alone know and appreciate the true value and significance of her contribution to this study, and to my life. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments..................................................................................................... iii Introduction: The Second Amendment: Political Power and Armed Coercion........1 Why Study the Second Amendment? A Question of Origins and Outcomes.............................................................4 Major Arguments and Themes......................................................................21 Method and Content......................................................................................24 Chapter I: Virginia’s Civil Wars: Cavaliers, Rebels, and English Soldiers, 1652-1682 .........................................................................................31 “Conspiring Cavaliers” .................................................................................32 England’s Civil War and Interregnum..........................................................39 Virginia’s Interregnum..................................................................................49 “Rebellious Rabble”......................................................................................56 White Man’s War: Poor Man’s Rebellion ....................................................61 Chapter II: Militias and Standing Armies in English Political Theory, 1648-1776 .........................................................................................89 The Constitutional Context...........................................................................89 The Origins of a Theory................................................................................96 Harrington’s “Original” Theory..................................................................113 Harrington’s Agrarian Republic .....................................................116 Harrington’s Military Republic.......................................................118 Subsequent Arguments ...............................................................................123 Radical Whigs.............................................................................................133 Moderate Whigs..........................................................................................140 Chapter III: The Power of the Sword in Virginia Reality, 1648-1699 ...............156 Contextual Contrasts...................................................................................156 Arms and Men Under Virginia Law ...........................................................165 Chapter IV: Virginia’s Militia, 1700-1750: Apathy and Atrophy .....................200 Queen Anne’s War, 1702-1713 ..................................................................202 Virginia’s Militia Policemen.......................................................................224 The War of Jenkins’s Ear, 1739-1741 ........................................................233 iv Chapter V: The Right Not to Bear Arms: Virginia’s Citizens at War, 1754-1763 ...........................................245 Virginians Prepare for War.........................................................................247 The Virginia Regiment ...............................................................................262 Great Britain’s Armed Intervention............................................................275 Arming Virginians for Self-Defense...........................................................278 Chapter VI: Virginia’s Ambiguous Sword, 1764-1774......................................290 Internal Police and the Stamp Act ..............................................................294 Exploring the Right to Rebel ......................................................................303 Virginia’s Defunct Militia...........................................................................306 Virginia’s First Convention ........................................................................316 The First Continental Congress ..................................................................322 Chapter VII: Preparing for War: The Second Virginia Convention, March 1775 ..............................333 Committees of Safety and “Independent” Companies................................335 The Militia Reconsidered............................................................................348 Virginia’s Second Convention....................................................................356 Chapter VIII: Virginia’s Sovereign Sword: Civil Power and the Third Convention ...........................................372 Gunpowder, Slaves, and Military Power ....................................................372 Virginia’s Minutemen.................................................................................399 Chapter IX: Article Thirteen: Experience Versus Ideology ...............................422 Chapter X: Forging the Federal Sword..............................................................454 The Constitutional Convention...................................................................466 The Causes and Clauses of the National Sword .........................................471 Chapter XI: Crossed Swords: Virginia’s Ratifying Convention, June 1788 ..................................488 The Great Debate: Monday, 14 June 1788 .................................................508 Conclusion: The Second Amendment In Principle and Practice ........................527 Bibliography .........................................................................................................543 v INTRODUCTION THE SECOND AMENDMENT: POLITICAL POWER AND ARMED COERCION A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.1
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