Book excerpt: seditions and insurrections are inseparable from politics – Orange County Breeze

Pertinent to our recent situation, this is an excerpt from Federalist No. 28, on the question of whether to restrict the legislative authority (that is, Congress) in regard to common defense:

Should such emergencies at any time happen under the national government, there could be no remedy but force. The means to be employed must be proportioned to the extent of the mischief. If it should be a slight commotion in a small part of a State, the militia of the residue would be adequate to its suppression; and the national presumption is that they would be ready to do their duty. An insurrection, whatever may be its immediate cause, eventually endangers all government. Regard to the public peace, if not to the rights of the Union, would engage the citizens on whom the contagion had not communicated itself to oppose the insurgents; and if the general government should be found in practice conducive to the prosperity and felicity of the people, it were irrational to believe that they would be disinclined to its support.

(Emphasis added.) This number of the Federalist Papers was written by Alexander Hamilton, and published in the Independent Journal in the State of New York on Wednesday, December 26, 1787.

As with the misguided insurrectionists of January 6, the rioters in Portland and Seattle need to be forcefully convinced to stop their violent behavior, and prosecuted according to the law, not just for the safety and security of the immediate area suffering the rampages, but also for the good of the general community local, state, and national.

Once peace and quiet are re-established, those in charge should take great pains to transparently investigate grievances, and to sponsor remedies where good cause exists and an effective remedy identified and agreed upon.

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Book excerpt: seditions and insurrections are inseparable from politics - Orange County Breeze