At the Constitutional ratifying convention in Virginia in 1788, Patrick Henry laid it out:
"Let me here call your attention to that part [Article 1, Section 8 of the proposed Constitution] which gives the Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States. "
"By this, sir, you see that their control over our last and best defence is unlimited. If they neglect or refuse to discipline or arm our militia, they will be useless: the states can do neither " this power being exclusively given to Congress. The power of appointing officers over men not disciplined or armed is ridiculous; so that this pretended little remains of power left to the states may, at the pleasure of Congress, be rendered nugatory."
And why was that such a concern for Patrick Henry?
"In this state," he said, "there are 236,000 blacks, and there are many in several other states. But there are few or none in the Northern States. ... May Congress not say, that every black man must fight? Did we not see a little of this last war? We were not so hard pushed as to make emancipation general; but acts of Assembly passed that every slave who would go to the army should be free."
Patrick Henry knew the majority attitude in the North opposed slavery, and he worried they'd use the Constitution to free the South's slaves (a process then called "Manumission").
The abolitionists would, he was certain, use that power (and, ironically, this is pretty much what Abraham Lincoln ended up doing):
"[T]hey will search that paper [the Constitution], and see if they have power of manumission," said Henry. "And have they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free, and will they not be warranted by that power?
"This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper [Constitution] speaks to the point: they have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it."
He added that he wanted no federal control over his Virginia militia/slave patrol:
"This is a local matter, and I can see no propriety in subjecting it to Congress."
James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution" and a slaveholder himself, basically called Patrick Henry paranoid.
"I was struck with surprise," Madison wrote, "when I heard him express himself alarmed with respect to the emancipation of slaves. ... There is no power to warrant it, in that paper [the Constitution]. If there be, I know it not."
But the southern fears wouldn't go away. So Madison changed his first draft to make sure it was unambiguous that the southern states could maintain their slave patrol militias, changing the word "country" to the word "state."
Little did Madison realize that one day a rigged and bought-off Supreme Court would rule that corporations were persons and could legally bribe politicians, and then a nonprofit corporation would shovel foreign money into Congress.
Nor did he imagine that same Court would rule it unconstitutional for states or towns to protect themselves against gun violence.
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