Just wanted to point out a few things here. Firstly, I've already shown quotes from Madison, Washington, Hamilton and two other delegates to the Constitutional Convention who advocated that the US have a standing army. I've also shown how Thomas Jefferson spoke favorably of the US going as far as the furthest northeastern reaches of Canada to drive the British out. I've read quotes from Henry Clay who singlehandedly lead the war effort of 1812, where Clay talked about annexing Canada and seizing the profits from their fur trade and that Madison signed on to this war and sent army and militia to fight in Canada.
All of this shows that the Founders were not averse to using military force beyond just territorial defense.
Lastly, I want to show how the Founders MAINTAINED AN ARMY even AFTER the Revolutionary War. That should show once and for all how the Founders felt about keeping a standing army. If you have a look at
this site you can easily see that the Founders maintained an army from the end of the Revolutionary war in 1783 till the War of 1812. So the founders maintained a standing army, period. Now one could argue that because the US was using the army to fight Native Americans, that these are all "emergency" situations. First of all, that would have to mean that stealing other people's lands counts as an "emergency situation" or one would have to argue that stealing Native Americans lands, doesn't really count as stealing and that whole of the US did by nature and the grace of God belong to the United States and we have a mandate on the land and thus you can't really steal what actually belongs to you by the grace of God. I leave "Truth-Bringer" to make such an argument.
However, even if he were to make such an argument that taking Native Americans lands does not count as war or aggression, and that the Native Americans were causing an "emergency" by attacking us for taking their lands, even then there is still proof that the Founders wanted a standing army. Even if you accepted such an argument.
We can see that because the British did not evacuate the forts they said the would evacuate in Northern New York and in present-day Michigan.
The British said they would leave and what did the Congress decide to do after the British left? Put an army in those forts. They didn't say, let's send some colonists out there and arm them and they can defend the lands. They didn't say de-construct the forts and we'll rely on the good word of the British that they will not return. No, they raised an army that would man those forts once the British were gone.
So the Founders believed in raising an army to man their forts along the border with the British Empire.
Quote:
On September 24, 1783, four days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war, Congress directed General Washington to discharge "such parts of the Federal Army now in Service as he shall deem proper and expedient." For the time being Washington retained the force facing the British at New York, discharging the rest of the Continentals. After the British quit New York, he kept only one infantry regiment and a battalion of artillery, 600 men in all, to guard the military supplies at West Point and other posts.
....
Located on American territory south of the boundary established by the peace treaty of 1783, the posts were in the hands of British troops when the war ended, but by the terms of the treaty they were to be turned over to the United States as speedily as possible. Congress agreed that a force should be retained to occupy the posts as soon as the British left. The problem was how and by whom the troops were to be raised. A decision was all the more urgent because the government was in the midst of negotiating a treaty with the Indians of the Northwest, and, as Washington had suggested, a sizable force "to awe the Indians" would facilitate the negotiations. But the deadlock between the New England states and New York continued until early June 1784.
Finally, on the last two days of the session, Congress rushed through a compromise. It ordered the existing infantry regiment and battalion of artillery disbanded, except for 80 artillerymen retained to guard military stores at West Point and Fort Pitt. It tied this discharge to a measure providing for the immediate recruitment of a new force of 700 men, a regiment of eight infantry and two artillery companies, which was to become the nucleus of a new Regular Army. By not making requisitions on the states for troops, but merely recommending that the states provide them from their militia, Congress got rid of most of the New England opposition on this score; by not assigning a quota for Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Congress satisfied the objections of most of the other states.
Four states were called upon to furnish troops: 260 men from Pennsylvania, 165 from Connecticut, 165 from New York, and 110 from New Jersey. Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar of Pennsylvania was appointed commanding officer. By the end of September 1784 only New Jersey and Pennsylvania had filled their quotas by enlisting volunteers from their militia.
|
So in reality, the Founders (before the War of 1812) believed in raising an army to guard their borders from the British and to kick the Native Americans off of their lands and to facilitate the settlers to continue taking Native American land.