Our Military History: Its Facts and Fallacies

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Reilly & Britton Company, 1916 - United States - 240 pages

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Page 24 - There are, however, important considerations which forbid a sudden and general revocation of the measures that have been produced by the war. Experience has taught us that neither the pacific dispositions of the American people nor the pacific character of their political institutions can altogether exempt them from that strife which appears beyond the ordinary lot of nations to be incident to the actual period of the world, and the same faithful monitor demonstrates that a certain degree of preparation...
Page 56 - A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined ; to which end a uniform and...
Page 62 - For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us, at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the states have paid...
Page 115 - Forge with less than half the force of the enemy, destitute of everything, in a situation neither to resist nor to retire; we should not have seen New York left with a handful of men, yet an overmatch for the main army of these states while the...
Page 118 - Our discipline also has been much hurt, if not ruined, by such constant changes. The frequent calls upon the militia have interrupted the cultivation of the land, and of course have lessened the quantity of its produce, occasioned a scarcity, and enhanced the prices. In an army so unstable as ours, order and economy have been impracticable.
Page 95 - ... such a mercenary spirit pervades the whole that I should not be at all surprised at any disaster that may happen.
Page 103 - ... adopted. These, Sir, Congress may be assured, are but a small part of the inconveniences, which might be enumerated, and attributed to militia ; but there is one, that merits particular attention, and that is the expense. Certain I am, that it would be cheaper to keep...
Page 29 - But in demonstrating by our conduct that we do not fear war in the necessary protection of our rights and honor we shall give no room to infer that we abandon the desire of peace.
Page 94 - In a letter to Reed he disburdened his heart more completely. " Such dearth of public spirit, and such want of virtue ; such stock-jobbing, and fertility in all the low arts to obtain advantage of one kind or another in this great change of military arrangement, I never saw before, and I pray God's mercy that I may never be witness to again.
Page 58 - If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it ; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.

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