The Hutaree, the TEA Party, and the Original Intent of the Founders
An awesome article on the subject I found right here on LJ, that delves into the history of similar, ah, 'movements' throughout US history.
"Between 1784 and 1787, there were a group of people who thought that the government of the United States had betrayed them. Many of them were Revolutionary War veterans, and there is no real doubt that they had a legitimate grievance, albeit one that the government flatly couldn't do anything to fix. In 1787, a retired soldier named Daniel Shays called up an armed march on Washington DC very like the one that the Muster Outside DC has planned. He and his Regulators, as they called themselves, declared that their intention was not to overthrow the government, but that they were carrying their service weapons to impress on Congress that they were serious. To retired general George Washington, however, carrying their weapons to impress on Congress that they were serious was armed rebellion enough. On his advice, the Founding Fathers called back up the volunteer army, ordered Shays and his Rebellion to disperse and disarm, and when they disobeyed, our Founding Fathers ordered them gunned down.
A few years later, in 1791, after General Washington had been elected President (which shows you how uncontroversial the Founders' generation thought his wholesale arrest of and the substantial death toll among Shays' gun rights enthusiasts were), he faced another group of "protesters." People in the mountain west (which at the time meant the Appalachians, not the Rockies) had already decided that they were being Taxed Enough Already, that if the government needed to make national debt payments it should reduce federal government instead of raising taxes, when the Washington administration persuaded Congress to pass the first "sin tax," a tax on whiskey and other distilled spirits. In the considered legal opinion of those who felt that they were Taxed Enough Already, this was an unconstitutional tax. The first "Tenthers," they argued on 10th amendment grounds that nothing in the Constitution gave the Washington administration, or Congress, the authority to collect taxes on anything other than a per-citizen tax on states and any taxes on imports, that under the doctrine of enumerated rights the federal government could not tax anything else. The courts, and Congress, were unpersuaded by their argument."
Much much more. Very lucid, plenty of links.
Ensaucening:
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/439195.html
"Between 1784 and 1787, there were a group of people who thought that the government of the United States had betrayed them. Many of them were Revolutionary War veterans, and there is no real doubt that they had a legitimate grievance, albeit one that the government flatly couldn't do anything to fix. In 1787, a retired soldier named Daniel Shays called up an armed march on Washington DC very like the one that the Muster Outside DC has planned. He and his Regulators, as they called themselves, declared that their intention was not to overthrow the government, but that they were carrying their service weapons to impress on Congress that they were serious. To retired general George Washington, however, carrying their weapons to impress on Congress that they were serious was armed rebellion enough. On his advice, the Founding Fathers called back up the volunteer army, ordered Shays and his Rebellion to disperse and disarm, and when they disobeyed, our Founding Fathers ordered them gunned down.
A few years later, in 1791, after General Washington had been elected President (which shows you how uncontroversial the Founders' generation thought his wholesale arrest of and the substantial death toll among Shays' gun rights enthusiasts were), he faced another group of "protesters." People in the mountain west (which at the time meant the Appalachians, not the Rockies) had already decided that they were being Taxed Enough Already, that if the government needed to make national debt payments it should reduce federal government instead of raising taxes, when the Washington administration persuaded Congress to pass the first "sin tax," a tax on whiskey and other distilled spirits. In the considered legal opinion of those who felt that they were Taxed Enough Already, this was an unconstitutional tax. The first "Tenthers," they argued on 10th amendment grounds that nothing in the Constitution gave the Washington administration, or Congress, the authority to collect taxes on anything other than a per-citizen tax on states and any taxes on imports, that under the doctrine of enumerated rights the federal government could not tax anything else. The courts, and Congress, were unpersuaded by their argument."
Much much more. Very lucid, plenty of links.
Ensaucening:
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/439195.html