« George Will on Voting Rts Act & why Demos can't win Congressional seats | Main | Great response to Brady's PR campaign in Florida »
Meaning of "well regulated"
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
REGULATED.
a. Governed by rule, properly controlled or directed, adjusted to some standard....
b. Of troops: properly disciplined (Obs. rare).
1690 Lond. Gaz. [London Gazette] No. 2568/ We hear likewise that the French are in a great allarm in in Daupine and Bresse, not having at present 1500 men of regulated troops on that side.
The qualifier has an obvious purpose. If the militia means all men capable of bearing arms, then any nation, free or unfree, has that. It would make no sense to say "Having a body of men capable of bearing arms is necessary to a free state." It probably would be, in the same sense that a nation needs a population, but it's also necessary to an unfree state.
I've found historical references that qualify militia going back to 1625, under Charles I, when he proposed "an exact militia" -- that is, one with more training and organization. I believe "well regulated" is used in one of the 18th century British militia laws, and it certainly was used in Whig writings of the time.
“I. WHEREAS it is necessary, in this time of danger, that the militia of this colony should be well regulated and disciplined. Be it therefore enacted, by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council, and Burgesses, of this present General assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this act every county-lieutenant, colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and other inferior officer, bearing any commission in the militia of this colony, shall be an inhabitant of, and resident in the county of which he is or shall be commissioned to be an officer of the militia. “An Act for the better regulating and disciplining the Militia.
APRIL 1757 - - 30th GEORGE II
This act states, “that the militia of this colony should be well regulated and disciplined.” The conjunction “and” creates a distinction between the terms well regulated and disciplined. It is possible to be well regulated and not disciplined and it is also just as possible to be disciplined, but not well regulated. The many militia acts of the colony of Virginia make it plain that well regulated and disciplined are married together just as the Militia acts themselves are always married to the reason for the Militia, for the more effectual provision against invasions and insurrections.
The printed commission of Thomas Jefferson as the County Lieutenant of Abemarle County by Governor Botetourt in 1770 states, “You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of Lieutenant and Chief Commander of the Militia, by doing and performing all, And all manner of things thereunto belonging, particularly by taking care that the said militia be well provided with Arms and Ammunition as the Law of this Colony directs; and that all Officers and Soldiers be duly exercised, and kept in good Order and discipline. And in case of any sudden Disturbance or Invasion, I do likewise empower you to raise, order, and march all or such part of the Said militia, as you shall seem meet, for resisting and subduing the Enemy:”
An 18th century understanding of the term well regulated in Virginia by the laws of the colony meant that all able bodied men who were freeholders, be supplied with arms and ammunition and to muster or train and to be ready at all times to repel invasions and insurrections.