Book Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 Excerpt: ...the whole range, from individual man to nations of men, the best guard against invasions, surprises, assaults, is a full and assured ability to meet and repel them. "For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom (Though war, nor no known quarrel were in question), But that defences, musters, preparations, Should be maintained, assembled and collected, As were a war in expectation." Our present Regular Army is wholly inadequate to our necessities. Applause. We do not want it for use beyond our borders. We would not conquer an acre of land outside of our present possessions. The privilege of entering the Union is too great, as General Grant says, "for us to go gunning around the world for new acquisitions." Applause. We want the Army for our own protection and defence. As it is, it can hardly furnish a man to leagues of coast--leaving the vast interior wholly unprotected. Our territory covers a large portion of this planet, and we have elements in it which may suddenly demand repression. Our army cannot be safely reduced below fifty thousand men. Applause. We want a portion in New York, some in the South, some on the Pacific coast. It is not a standing army; it is an army on the wing. A detachment may be required in Texas to-day, in Pittsburg tomorrow, and the day after in the Black Hills. The red savage, with upraised tomahawk, hangs on the border of civilization, and threatens the pioneer. Communism, invading us from the Old World, menaces the very organization of society, and would subvert its holiest principles; while trade-unionism, its offspring, which will neither work nor let others work, shakes its unlighted torch in city and country, in workshop and in mine. Its creed is, not the right to its own volition, but to exercise compuls...
