Force of Arms

The Constitution has never worked as many of the Founders envisioned; they believed that the House of Representatives would usually decide Presidential elections, they believed we would hold regular Constitutional Conventions, they believed the Judiciary would be relatively powerless, etc. A number of things have worked out in unforseen ways.

Don, over at Current Observations, notes with some amusement that Alexander Hamilton believed the State militias could easily counterbalance a standing national army.

Someone should have pointed this out to Abraham Lincoln, I suppose...