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Excerpt from The Militia of the United States: What It Has Been, What It Should Be
I am aware that the graphic description of the helplessness of the British, surprised by an invasion, and the estimates of the time needed to convert stolid peasants into efficient soldiers, would not apply entirely to our own more lively and more educated people. What John Bull could achieve in a year, we, with our talent for organization and habit of voluntary combination, would accomplish in three months. Still it illustrates sufficiently my position, that an organized armed force of some sort is necessary.
I am aware too that the remoteness of our country from Europe, our wise policy of avoiding entangling alliances, and of abstaining from interference in the affairs of foreign nations, renders war less probable; but notwithstanding these favorable circumstances, we have been at war or in imminent danger of such a calamity at least ten times since the termination of our revolutionary contest; that is, within the space of eighty years.
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