men to invade the* natural peaceful state of society, it is among the first emotions of the heart, to repel the bold invader. Men, assembled from such motives, having expelled the enemy from their borders, re-assuming the pruning hook and the spade, for the sword and the spear, have, in all ages, been called the saviours of their country.

A militia is the most natural defence of a free state, from invasion and tyranny: they who compose the militia, are the proprietors of the soil; and who are so likely to defend it, as they who have received it from their ancestors-acquired it by their labor-or obtained it by their valor? every free man has within his breast the great essentials of a soldier, and having made the use of arms familiar, is ever ready for the field. And where is the tyrant who has not reason to dread an army of freemen ?

mind, and in a social view, destroys the character of a free agent.*

They who follow the profession of arms conceive themselves exempted from the useful occupations of life, and thence contract a habit of dissipation; soldiers inured to exercise and labor in their duty, at leisure to roam, will not be wholly inactive in a city, where the means of gratification abound; pursuing the objects of pleasure with the same zeal with which they engaged in the toils and enterprises of the field, whole armies have too late found themselves destroyed by the dissolving power of luxury.

We have a remarkable instance of this, my fellow-citizens, in the army of Hannibal, which, having withstood the greatest hardships, and which the most dreadful dangers had never been able to discourage, in winter quarters, at Capua, was entirely conquered by plenty and pleasures.†

The effects of luxury, though productive of the greatest misfortunes to an army stationed in a city, are by no means confined to that class of men. The great body of the people, smote by the charms and blandishments of a

Rome advanced on the zenith of glory and greatness, and conquered all nations in the times of the republic, while her army was an unpaid militia.

The Grecians carried on their wars against Persia by means of their militia; and at last beat the numerous mercenary armies, and subdued the vast empire of Persia.

The deeds of valor performed by my own countrymen, and in our day, are numerous and recent, and point out, as with a sun-beam, that the militia is to a free country a lasting security.

You will now permit me to consider the condition and consequences of a standing army.

Men who enlist themselves for life soon lose the feelings of citizens. To command and be commanded, excites an idea of servitude and dependence, which degrades the

The natural state of nations with respect to each other, is certainly that of society and peace. Such is the natural and primitive state of one man with respect to another; and whatever alteration mankind may have made in regard to their original state, they cannot, without violating their duty, break in upon that state of peace and society, in which nature has placed them, and which, by her laws, she has strongly recommended to their observance. Purlamaqui, Part 4. Chap. r. Sec. 4.

+ Vid. Political Disquisitions.

to its fascinations. The city, reared by the forming hand of industry, soon feels the symptoms of dissolution-the busy merchant now no more extends his commerce; the mechanic throws aside his chisel; the voice of riot succeeds to the sounds of the hammer, and the midnight revel to the vigils of labor.

When a large respectable standing army has been stationed in a city, commanded by officers of known patriotism, who have taught those under their orders to interchange the kind and friendly offices of life; citizens, conceiving themselves secured from domestic broils and the danger of invasion from abroad, imperceptibly relax in their attention to military exercises, and may thus be exposed as a tempting bait to an aspiring despot; besides, a people who have made themselves respectable by their personal attention to their own defence, neglecting their militia, may be insulted by those neighbors

* Moore, in his view of society and manners in Europe, observes-" As to the common soldiers, the leading idea of the discipline is, to reduce them in many respects, to the nature of machines: that they may have no volition of their own, but be actuated solely by that of their officers ; that they may have such a superlative dread of their officers, as annihilates all fear of the enemy; that they may move forward when ordered, without deeper reasoning or more concern than the firelocks they carry along with them."

+ Vid. Livy's Roman history for an account of the battles, sufferings, and almost incredible march and destruction of the renowned Carthaginian general and his

army.

When communities have so far mistaken their interest as to commit the defence of every thing valuable in life to a standing army, the love of ease will scarcely permit them to reassume the unpleasant task of defending them selves.

At the conclusion of a long and bloody war, the liberties of a people are in real danger from the admission of troops into a free city. When an army has suffered every hardship to which the life of a soldier is peculiarly incident, and has returned crowned with the well-earned laurels of the field, they justly expect to be received into the open arms, and with the applauses of those for whom they have fought, and in whose cause they have bled; in a situation like this, whole communities, in transport of gratitude, have weakly sacrificed at the shrine of a deliverer, every thing for which their armies have fought, or their heroes bled.

Nations, the most renowned among the ancients for their wisdom and their policy, have viewed the army with an eye of attentive jealousy; the Romans, characterized for personal bravery,* trembled for their country, at the sight of one hundred and fifty lictors, or peace officers, as a guard of the decemviri. Such an army was dangerous, they said, to liberty. These politic people knew the prevailing propensity in all mankind to power. The history of later times has abundantly justified the wisdom of their jealousies. All parts of Europe which have been enslaved, have been enslaved by armies. No nation can be said to enjoy internal liberty which admits them in a time of peace. When a government has a body of standing troops at command, it is easy to form pretensions for the distribution of them, so as to effect their own purposes; when a favorite point is to be carried, a thousand soldiers may convey irresistible argument, and compel men to act against their feelings, interest, and country.

Such were the arguments employed by Philip the Second, of Spain, to persuade the inhabitants of the Netherlands to relinquish their liberties, their property, and their religion; the progress of these dreadful measures produced scenes of massacre and devastation, the

In the battles fought in our age, every single soldier has very little security and confidence except in the multitude; but among the Romans, every individual, more robust and of greater experience in war, as well as more inured to the fatigues of it, than the enemy, relied upon himself only. He was naturally endued with courage, or in other words, with that virtue which a sensibility of our own strength inspires. Montesquieu.

One of the commanders of the army under the duke of Alva, demanding a pass through the city of Rotterdam,* was at first refused, but assuring the magistrates that he meant only to lead his troops through the town, and not to lodge them in it, they consented to suffer the companies to pass through one by one: no sooner had the first company entered the city, than the officer, without regard to his engagements, ordered them to keep the gates open until the other companies should arrive: one of the citizens, endeavoring to shut the gate, was killed by his own hand; his troops, eager to follow his example, drew their swords, and, giving a-loose to their fury, spread themselves over the town, and butchered more than three hundred of the inhabitants.

This was among the first events of that war which rendered the Netherlands a scene of horror and devastation for more than thirty years; but which, whilst it proved the source, on many occasions, of extreme distress to the people, called forth an exertion of virtue, spirit, and intrepidity, which seldom occurs in the annals of history.-Never was there a more unequal contest, than between the inhabitants of the Low-Countries and the Spanish monarch; and never was the issue of any dispute more contrary to what the parties had reason to expect.

Under similar circumstances, my fellowcitizens, a standing army was introduced and stationed in this city; which produced the scene we now commemorate, and which I know you cannot all remember, but let the stranger hear and let the listening youth be told—that on the evening of the fifth of March, seventeen hundred and seventy, under the orders of a mercenary officer, murder, with her polluted weapons, stood trampling in the blood of our slaughtered countrymen; imagination cannot well conceive what mingling passions then convulsed the soul and agonized the heart!-those pangs were sharp indeed, which ushered into life a nation!-like Hercules † she rose brawny from the cradle, the snakes of Britain yet hung hissing round her horrible, and fell!-at her infant voice they

The whole affair is related at length in Watson's History of the Low Countries, to which the reader is referred. ↑ Hercules is represented, when very young, engaged in the most courageous and dangerous enterprises---such as encountering lions, squeezing them to death against his own breast, or tearing their jaws asunder; sometimes, when an infant, grasping serpents with a little smile upon his cheek, as if he was pleased with their fine colors and their motions, and killing them by his strong gripe with so much ease, that he scarce deigns to look up on them.

America, separated from the nations of Europe by the mighty ocean, and from Britain by the mightier hand of heaven, is acknowledged an independent nation; she has now to maintain her dignity and importance among the kingdoms of the earth. May she never be seduced from her true interest, by subtle intrigue, mistaken policy, or misguided ambition! but, considering her own condition, may she follow the maxims of wisdom, which are better than the weapons of war!

It has become fashionable in Europe, to keep a large standing army in times of peace. The people of Great Britain have professed their aversion to the establishment, yet have suffered it to gain ground upon the idea of preserving the balance of power. This custom is so deeply rooted and so firmly established, that nothing short of annihilation of the governments where they have been so long tolerated can abolish the institution.

From the situation and vicinity of the nations of Europe with respect to each other, the different extent of territory rendering it more difficult to repel an invasion from some countries than others, for the celerity of defence and the more complete security of extensive countries; from these and similar considerations, even wise politicians have defended the propriety of the establishment, but let their motives be ever so pure the ambitious and the aspiring have views extensive and ruinous; they have felt the charms and experienced the utility of this engine, and are not wanting in their exertions to support its existence.

country, with respect to other dominions, is so secured by nature, that no one can feign pretensions sufficiently plausible to convince the people of America of the propriety of supporting a standing army in a time of peace; whilst memory retains the exploits of our brave citizens in the field, who have joined the standard of freedom, and successfully defended her injured altars and her devoted rites. The community will be assured that, upon the basis of a wellregulated militia, an army may be raised upon all future occasions sufficient to oppose the most formidable invaders.

Here, were it pertinent, I would express a confidence, that when the army shall be disbanded, justice, with impartial scale, will distribute due rewards to those who have jeoparded their lives in the high places of the field.

Every American is conscious of the effects produced by the knowledge of the people in the use of arms, and from that experience need not be exhorted to an attention to their militia.

When we consider our own prosperous condition, and view the state of that nation, of

"A similarity of religion, although it is not deemed so essential in this as in former ages, to the alliance of nations is still, as it ever will be thought, a desirable circumstance. Now it may be said with truth, that there are no two

nations, whose worship, doctrine and discipline, are, more alike than those of the two republics. In this particular, therefore, as far as it is of weight, an alliance would be perfectly natural.

The new and glorious treaty concluded, since the last anniversary, with the states of Holland, whose manners, laws, religion, and bloody contest for freedom, so nearly resemble our own,* affords a happy presage of lasting

* If there was ever among nations a natural alliance, one may be formed between the two republics. The first planters of the four northern states found in this country an asylum from persecution, and resided here from the year one thousand six hundred and eight, to the year one thousand six hundred and twenty, twelve years preceding their migration. They ever entertained and have transmitted to posterity, a grateful remembrance of that protection and hospitality, and especially of that religious liberty they found here, having sought it in vain in England.

"The first inhabitants of two other states, New York and New Jersey, were immediate emigrants from this nation, and have transmitted their religion, language,

lics are not perfectly alike, there is yet analogy enough between them to make a connection easy in this respect. "The originals of the two republics are so much alike, that the history of one seems but a transcript from that of ject, must pronounce the American revolution just and necessary or pass a censure upon the greatest actions of his immortal ancestors; actions which have been approved and applauded by mankind, and justified by the decision of heaven.

the other so that every Dutchman, instructed in the sub

"If therefore an analogy of religion, government, original manners, and the most extensive and lasting commercial interests, can form a ground and an invitation to political connexions, the subscriber flatters himself, that in all these particulars the union is so obviously natural, that there has seldom been a more distinct designation of Providence to any two distant nations to unite themselves together."

Extracts from the memorial to their high mightinesses, the states general of the United Provinces of the LowCountries, by that great statesman and patriot, his excellency John Adams, esq., minister plenipotentiary at the Hague, dated Leyden, April 19, 1781.