151. ADMINISTRATION, Unsuccessful.—
Two measures have not been adopted,
which I pressed on Congress repeatedly at
their meetings. The one, to settle the whole
ungranted territory of Orleans, by donations
of land to able-bodied young men, to be engaged
and carried there at the public expense,
who would constitute a force always ready
on the spot to defend New Orleans. The
other was to class the militia according to the
years of their birth, and make all those from
twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and
called into service at a moment's warn
ing. This would have given us a force of
three hundred thousand young men, prepared
by proper training, for service in any part
of the United States; while those who had
passed through that period would remain at
home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent
States. Those two measures would
have completed what I deemed necessary
for the entire security of our country. They
would have given me, on my retirement from
the government of the nation, the consolatory
reflection, that having found, when I
was called to it, not a single seaport town
in a condition to repel a levy of contribution
by a single privateer or pirate, I had left
every harbor so prepared by works and gunboats,
as to be in a reasonable state of security
against any probable attack; the territory
of Orleans acquired, and planted with an
internal force sufficient for its protection; and
the whole territory of the United States organized
by such a classification of its male
force, as would give it the benefit of all its
young population for active service, and that
of a middle and advanced age for stationary
defence. But these measures will, I hope,
be completed by my successor.—
To General Kosciusko. Washington ed. v, 507.
(M.
Feb. 1810)
