Continental Congress Quotes
The keeping a standing army in these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against law.
Many modern Americans who look to the founding fathers for modern guidance regarding gun rights, foreign policy, and many other facets of government are shocked to learn that there was almost unanimous opposition to maintaining a standing army in times of peace. That there was very little concept of military preparedness.
Continental Congress, Number 9, Declaration of Rights, Philadelphia, October 14, 1774
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Monroe was then Secretary of State and the U. S. was at war.
In early America, there was great concern about a standing army—a military force that exists and is organized in peacetime. History showed the founding fathers that tyrants who siezed power almost always did so by getting control of the standing army. The logic was if there is no standing army, no one can control it and therefore no tyrant can control the country by force. At the time, however, with oceans protecting us, there was penty of time to mobilize a defensive army should any foreign power invade. However, with modern military technology, and the importantance of retaliation as a protective3 strategy, it is virtually impossible to not have a standing army and stoll be secure.
Congress and most of the Founding Fathers were very distrustful of standing armies. They were aware that standing armies had taken over societies ever since ancient Rome and Julius Caesar.
These two states actually prohibited their legislatures from maintaining a standing army. Similar sentiments were in the constitutions or bill of rights of New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland and Massachusetts but the option was left with the legislatures. A similar phrase appears in the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776.
Arguing against the draft before World War II:
Franklin and many Americans believed that the Colonial Legislatures were independent legislative bodies and need not follow the instructions of the Colonial Governors even though they came from the British Government in London. Franklin replied "This is new doctrine to me."" 1st Marquess of Stafford
Washington, though a military officer at the time, was very concerned with protecting the rights of citizens from abuse by the military for he had seen much of the abuse. The third amendment for example was later written to protect people from the military. The Constitution also requires that Congress make such rules for the military. Note that Washington, our first senior military officer at the time, wanted Congress to make detailed rules for the conduct of soldiers. In the 20th and 21st century, as the imperial presidency developed, there was a political view that only the military officers and the Commander in Chief should make the rules and regulations for the soldiers. However, there was no question but that the Founding Fathers saw this as a legislative branch function. Congress and Presidents have contested for this power every since.
This was an official publication of the U. S. Army. The First World War had very little affect on future military preparedness At that time conservatives in Congress were very isolationist and military preparedness was not a high priority or even a significant political issue. The Democrats then were more supportive of military spending than the Republicans. It took World War II, for which America was very unprepared, to produce a change in public and political opinion regarding military preparedness.
The notion of America flexing its military muscles and intimidating other nations by sending a fleet of 16 battle ships around the world was not greeted enthusiastically by some. However in Japan, the reaction was totally positive. The Russo-Japanese War had been ended thanks to the mediation of Theodore Roosevelt (for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize) and America was a model for much of Japan’s modernization. 25 years later the Japanese would view America as an interfering, intimidating bully, curtailing their national aspirations and rights.
This constitution was written 7 years before the national constitutional convention. It shows that there was concern about the separation of powers in United States even before the Constitution was drafted. See {616749} for an even clearer statement of the separation of powers principle. The national legislatures in Europe had commonly declared people traitors and in many cases incarcerated or executed them. This clause, effectively presaged the national constitution of 1787 where the Congress was prohibited from trying people for treason or anything else except impearchment.
In early America and up to WWII, generally it was the conservatives like Fisher who were opposed to a strong military and many wanted no military at all except in times of war. It was President Dwight Eisenhower who turned the right wing of America into a pro military force.
The colonists in America had no representatives in Parliament. Galloway who opposed armed rebellion against Britain {621966} admitted that the British treatment of America was wrong but saw other solutions. It will never be known if any of them might have worked. The world would have been very different had they been tried.
This size standing army which alarmed so many at the beginning of the 20th century, looked very small when compared with the standing army of America a century later. For earlier American Politician’s views on a standing army, see {592824}, {631687}, {622888}, and {641008}.
FDR, Eleanor and lost liberals of the time were advocates of a strong military, and unlike after the 2nd Word War, most of the Republicans were conservative isolationists who were opposed to spending much public money for the armed services or weapons.
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies which met in the British American colonies and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolution. The term "Continental Congress" most specifically refers to the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and may also refer to the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789, which operated as the first national government of the United States until being replaced by the current congress. Thus, the term covers the three congressional bodies of the Thirteen Colonies and the new United States that met between 1774 and 1789.
