What would the founders think of North Korea's missile tests?After learning that Alaska ? a remote Russian territory in the late eighteenth century ? was now a part of the United States, the founders would realize that a bellicose, unstable nation was seeking the capacity to strike American soil, as well as the entire homeland of our ally Japan.
The founders were familiar with the concept of pre-emptive war. After Napoleon acquired the Louisiana Territory from Spain, Gouverneur Morris gave a speech in the Senate urging the United States to secure free passage of the Mississippi, by force if necessary. "He who renders me insecure, he who hazards my peace, and exposes me to imminent danger, commits an act of hostility against me and gives me the rights consequent on that act." Morris would not wait for a declaration of war, or an attack, to defend himself.
But just because something is justifiable does not mean it is prudent. For twenty years, the founders pondered what to do about the Barbary States, piratical Moslems who ran a naval protection racket in the Mediterranean. If you paid them off ahead of time, they let you alone. If you didn't, they seized your ships and ransomed the crews. If you didn't pay the ransom, your people spent the rest of their lives in slavery. The Barbary States were a combination of the Mob and the middle passage. The founders tried every means of dealing with them. The first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, negotiated. The third president, Thomas Jefferson, attacked the Barbary States by land and sea; he tried regime change, hoping to replace the Bashaw of Tripoli with his more-friendly brother; in the end, he too negotiated, settling for a (relatively) moderate pay-off. The problem did not end until James Madison, the fourth president, sent a second navy, waged a second war, and made the Barbary States pay damages.
The founders might say: Take a good look at your problems. Some of them will be with you for a long time.
Note
The founders are in undisclosed locations, and the Patriot Act forbids me from saying precisely how I am in contact with them, but be assured that I am. All direct quotations from the founders are on the record. In fact, they have been on the record for two hundred years.