State Protection Quotes
Without realizing it Abbott conceded some of the reasons that some people opposed women serving in the military. His entire argument hangs on the slender thread that it is not the function of a woman which was a view held by some people with particular religious and philosophical views. When that group was clearly shown to be a minority of Americans, women entered military service and joined police forces across the country.
This quotation is often misunderstood. At the time there were a number of siege machines that were used to batter or breach the walls of towns, forts or castles. However, really good architects (actually military engineers and architects were the same at the time) were able to design countermeasures to thwart the machines by analyzing the principles of the siege machines and creating counter machines, structures and tactics. This point was that the clever architects were necessary and able to save nations. Most of these have got unheralded at the time or in history except for a few like Leonardo Da Vinci who is today known as a great artist and futurist but was mainly known his his own time as a military engineer.
Van Buren was Ambassador to England at the time.
He was assassinated by the Mafia later that year.
The issue of whether the military has any rights per se in a democracy or is an institution established and controlled by the people is one that separates many countries today. In one philosophy—held by America and most industrial democracies—the military is completely subservient to and under the control of the people and their government. The other view held by many societies controlled by the military is that the military is a subset of the people with specific rights granted to it. In some countries the military can name representatives, can veto legislation and are considered a faction just like political parties. See China, Turkey, Argentina, and Indonesia for examples of the latter view.
