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 warning. 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. These 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
sea-port 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 gun-boats, 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, who,
to the purest principles of republican patriotism, adds a wisdom and
foresight second to no man on earth.
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