2139. DEFENCE, Preparations for.—
The moment our peace was threatened [by
the attack on the Chesapeake], I deemed it indispensable
to secure a greater provision of
those articles of military stores with which
our magazines were not sufficiently furnished.
To have awaited a previous and special sanction
by law would have lost occasions which
might not be retrieved. I did not hesitate,
therefore, to authorize engagements for such
supplements to our existing stock as would
render it adequate to the emergencies threatening
us; and I trust that the Legislature, feeling the same anxiety for the safety of our
country, so materially advanced by this protection,
will approve, when done, what they
would have seen so important to be done, if
then assembled.—
Seventh Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 87.
Ford ed., ix, 161.
(Oct. 1807)
See Law, Transcending.
