Legislation: National Military Act of 1790 (Failed)

[GoTfan]

Mr Speaker,

This military need not be a large one to begin with. 15,000 soldiers and 20,000 sailors, supplemented by the state militias, would be sufficient while our debt is being paid down. This would, of course, allow room for military expansion once our national debt is paid.

My colleagues from the Patriot and Western factions share valid concerns here; ones I took into account when drafting this legislation. I hope these concerns have been alleviated.

I yield.

[GoTfan]

Mr Speaker,

If I may ask a question to the gentleman who just spoke, how do you propose that we defend our country without a national military? Or do you merely seek to ensure that our national defense is as poor and uncoordinated as possible in order to prevent your so-called "tyranny"?

I now begin to understand why so many of my comrades-in-arms during the Revolutionary War, whom I fought with, starved with and bled with loathed politicans. There are still men who fought for this country who are yet to be paid for their service. Does the gentleman propose that these men simply not be paid for their service?

[GoTfan]

Mr Speaker,

This offer from my colleague Mr Morris shows the magnanimity of the man who financed the war out of his own pocket when Congress could not.

During the war, his privateers wreaked havoc on the Royal Navy. His money held the army together for a long time, and it is because of him that we were able to fight on when we did not get the money we required. His forgiveness of 30% of the debt to him shows that he places his nation above his personal enrichment.

I yield.

[GoTfan]

Mr Speaker,

I do not accept the amendment. Politicians can theorize until the sky falls into the sea. How appropriate, considering that many of them did exactly that during the war while ignoring the pleas of General Washington, who himself remarked of the Congress; "I give it decisively as my opinion, that unless the states will content themselves with a full, & well chosen representation in Congress, & vest that body with absolute powers in all matters . . . we are attempting an impossibility, & very soon shall become (if it is not already the case) a many headed monster—a heterogenious Mass—that never will, or can, steer to the same point"

[GoTfan]

Mr Speaker,

The proposed amendment would effectively mean that we have no regular army or navy. We would continue to be reliant on a militia instead, only a national one. An army of part-time soldiers and sailors is simply not sufficient to ensure our nation's security.