Lucy – Third Amendment

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In the constitution the Third Amendment was written to go against quartering of soldiers.  This started during the revolutionary war. This amendment implies rights to domestic property and protects citizens from soldiers entering their homes without consent. 

During English wars their government wanted to make sure that at all times they had their military in nice homes being fed and sleeping in a real bed. Their military was not in barracks, and instead was in private homes, inns, ales, or barns. In England there was a law called the Anti-Quartering Act that banned soldiers from quartering in peoples homes and when England expanded to America those laws did not follow.  The first quartering act was published in 1765, which made it so the colonists had to house the British soldiers by finding barracks for them to stay in. If no barracks were available the colonists had to accommodate the British soldiers and find them another place to live like an inn or even their own home. Colonists were very upset and distraught by the huge number of RedCoats in Boston. With the British troops invading Boston, a very poor relationship came out which led to catastrophic and beginning events of the revolutionary war like the Boston Massacre.

The colonists were being rowdy outside of a store and the British troops shot and killed 5 people. These ongoing problems between the colonists and the English led to the Intolerable Acts of 1774 which included a quartering act that made British soldiers be offered even nicer housing from the colonists. The revolutionary war was meant to fight against these unequal laws that were put in place and remove the colonies from under British rule and after the Bill of Rights and the constitution were passed the colonies got freedom from England. 

The motivation for including this article in the constitution is to not have soldiers have to stay in other people’s houses. Having soldiers live with someone if they don’t have a very large house can take up lots of valuable space, soldiers can eat a lot of one’s food and cause someone to starve, and especially if the soldier is of an opposing group can be a major threat to that person because soldiers have weapons. When soldiers would come not only would they be a threat to colonists as an opposition but also by bringing deadly diseases to towns. The newly formed government needed to add this amendment into the Bill of Rights so that soldiers wouldn’t enter peoples homes and cause a ruckus. 

The third amendment connects to the enlightenment philosopher John Locke and his ideas that everyone should have the right to life, liberty, and property. The third amendment is making sure that every American citizen has the right to their own home and that soldiers can’t intrude without consent of the people who live there.  

 

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