5208. MILITIA, Improving.—[further continued].
It is 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 a laudable attention
to this object; but every degree of neglect
is to be found among others. Congress alone
have power to produce a uniform state of
preparation in this great organ of defence;
the interests which they so deeply feel in
their own and their country's security will
present this as among the most important
objects of their deliberation.—
Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 108.
Ford ed., ix, 223.
(1808)
