3rd Amendment

3rd Amendment

FACTS

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Quartering Act of 1774

"Allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings,such as: barns, inns, among other unoccupied structures."

Cited from wikipedia

Quartering during a war

"During the French and Indian War Britain had forcibly seized quarters in private dwellings. In the American Revolutionary War, the New York Provincial Congress barracked Continental Army troops in private homes."

Cited from wikipedia

Why this amendment was written?

Colonial period

"During the colonial period, colonists were forced to let British soldiers sleep in their homes and eat their meals. Colonists were outraged, and the more they upset the British government, the more they were punished by having soldiers forced into their homes."

cited from score.rims.k12.ca.us

History

"English law forbade the presence of a standing army without the consent of the people, in preference to a citizen army. Standing armies were viewed as threats to freedom because they could quickly and easily overpower the common person."

Cited from www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com

The 3rd Amendment was written because of General Thomas Gage, commander in chief, was finding it hard to convince Colonial Assemblies to help provide for quartering and provisions of troops on the march.

And so, he asked Parliament to do something.

There were many complications that followed...

"This first Quartering Act was given Royal Assent on March 24, 1765, and provided that Great Britain would house its soldiers in American barracks and public houses, as by the Mutiny Act of 1765, but if its soldiers outnumbered the housing available, would quarter them "in inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualing houses, and the houses of sellers of wine and houses of persons selling of rum, brandy, strong water, cider or metheglin", and if numbers required in "uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings." Colonial authorities were required to pay the cost of housing and feeding these troops."

There were many more adjustments to the quartering acts that followed.

(Found in the Wikipedia site. Sources cited in the bibliographies.)

The Main Reasons

In the past there has been a lot of quartering troops in civilian homes during the colonial times and it made a lot of people mad especially at King George the 3rd. It was also very dangerous because they knew combat techniques but the civilians did not. That is why the 3rd amendment was written.

Bibliography

Houghton, Bob. "Amendment 3." Score History/ Social Science. SCORE H/SS. Web. 21 Feb 2013. <http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/bill_of_rights/media/three.htm>.

. "The Third Amendment." Revolutionary War and Beyond. Revolutionary War and Beyond, 8 Jul 2012. Web. 21 Feb 2013. <http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/third-amendment.html>.

. "Quartering Acts." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 20 Feb 2013. Web. 21 Feb 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartering_Acts>.

What does this amendment mean to us today?

Paul Vue: "It is a fair statement."

Greg and Carleen Moser: "The government should not be allowed to make a home owner take in a soldier by law. It should be a home owners free choice not forced."

Sharon Sieg: "I feel like it protects me and my husband from military people just coming in whenever they want to. It was made to help protect the people and I am all for it."