Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaptlt.Endrass
They would also not be happy about the downsizing of the military (I'm not)
|
Actually they believed that a national military was a dangerous thing.
"In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people."
-James Madison, "Father of The Constitution", in a speech at the Constitutional Debates, June 29, 1787
"There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army."
-Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789
"There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war."
-Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776
I believe that U.S. history has proved them wrong, and as long as all Americans are brought up to believe that way, then the military is not a danger. I'm just pointing out that the Founders would likely be glad to see the military downsized to nothing.