5207. MILITIA, Improving.—[further continued] .
In compliance with a request
of the House of Representatives, as
well as with a sense of what is necessary, I
take the liberty of urging on you the importance
and indispensable necessity of vigorous
exertions, on the part of the State governments,
to carry into effect the militia system
adopted by the national Legislature, agreeable
to the powers reserved to the States respectively,
by the Constitution of the United
States, and in a manner the best calculated
to ensure such a degree of military discipline,
and knowledge of tactics, as will under the
auspices of a benign Providence, render the
militia a sure and permanent bulwark of
national defence.—
To—. Washington ed. iv, 469.
(W.
Feb. 1803)
