Amendment III

Document 11

William Rawle, A View of the Constitution of the United States 126--27 1829 (2d ed.)

No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, (here the restriction is general,) nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law; and this must be construed a law of the United States when the war is general, or of the state when in the authorized exercise of the right of self-defence on the sudden emergencies adverted to in the Constitution, immediate state operations have become necessary. In the former case, the sole conduct of the war is given to the general government, and it ought not to be dependent on, or controlled by the state governments in its modes of proceeding. In the latter, the state, relying on its own energies, is entitled to the benefit of the same principle. The practice would be needlessly burthensome to the people in time of peace, and by a government having improper views, it might be rendered an indirect and odious mean of compelling submission to improper measures. During a war, when it becomes necessary to garrison a town, or station a body of troops for a time in a particular place, the common interest will naturally supersede minor objections.

By the general term soldier, we are to understand as well the militia in actual service as regular troops.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment III, Document 11
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendIIIs11.html
The University of Chicago Press

Rawle, William. A View of the Constitution of the United States of America. 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1829. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970.