5179. MILITIA, Classification.—
You
will consider whether it would not be expedient,
for a state of peace as well as of
war, so to organize or class the militia, as
would enable us, on any sudden emergency,
to call for the services of the younger portions,
unencumbered with the old and those
having families. Upwards of three hundred
thousand able bodied men, between the ages
of eighteen and twenty-six years, which the
last census shows we may now count within
our limits, will furnish a competent number
for offence or defence in any point where
they may be wanted, and give time for raising
regular forces after the necessity of them
shall become certain; and the reducing to the
early period of life all its active service, cannot
but be desirable to our younger citizens,
of the present as well as future times, inasmuch
as it engages to them in more advanced
age a quiet and undisturbed repose in the
bosom of their families. I cannot, then, but
earnestly recommend to your early consideration
the expediency of so modifying our
militia system as, by a separation of the more
active part from that which is less so, we
may draw from it, when necessary, an efficient
corps, fit for real and active service,
and to be called to it in regular rotation.—
Fifth Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 49.
Ford ed., viii, 392.
(Dec. 1805)
