Maintain a Navy – Constitution Article 1 §8.13

Article 1 §8.13 of the Constitution is about Congress’ power to maintain a navy. It’s one of several clauses collectively referred to as “The War Power,” which is a pretty big deal.

Another big deal? Democracy. It seems boring until it falls apart. That’s why I’m studying the Constitution, one clause at a time. I’m up to Article 1 §8.13.

Article 1 §8.13

The third clause in the cluster of “war powers,” Article 1 §8.13 grants Congress the power:

To provide and maintain a Navy

There doesn’t seem to be much to say about this one. Of course, if Congress maintains an army, it should maintain a navy, and an air force, too, once it’s invented. As fond as the Framers were of dividing powers, it wouldn’t make any sense to divide military powers according to the type of weapon or the landscape upon which battles might be fought. Clause 13 could have been a phrase, “and navy” in Clause 12. Or Clause 12 could have used “military” instead of “army.” Let’s face it, this document was written by committee under a time crunch, centuries before Zinsser’s book On Writing Well.

Working Documents

There’s room for improvement. It’s the highest authority we’ve got, but it’s not perfect. When I worked in local government, we often referred to “working documents.” They were documents that we needed because they explained policies or procedures. But they were ugly, awkward things that never got printed up with a pretty cover that said “final,” because the things they documented kept changing. As important as the Constitution is, it’s equally important to remember that it’s a working document. Sometimes a situation comes up that just doesn’t seem to fit the answers in the document. So we dig into it like priests studying entrails for signs. If you have to get mystical to find an answer, you’re better off building your own solution and then updating the document.