The daily gazette., 1876-12-04
From the Baltimore Sun.
Danger Of Standing
Armies.

One of the chief burdens OF complaint
against Great Britain in the popular
movements which inauguratedt the Ameri
can revolution was the danger OF n stand
lug army to the cause of freedom. The
orators of Massachusetts especially,
aroused by the massacrc of citizens OF
boston by British troops, March
., 1710, did not confine themselves
to the i'll effects of placing standing for
ces in the midst of populous commune
| ties, but denounced any and every such
thing as a standing army no matter what
Its numbers, in free country. Thus, in
the great oration of James Lowell, A. NJ.
delivered at the request of the inhabitants
of Boston, April ., 1872, the speaker says:
''The Tue strength and safety of every
commonwealth Orlimited monarchy is the
bravery of its freeholders, its militia. by
| brave militias they rise to grandeur; and
Meg come TO ruin byd mercenory army.
This is founded on historical facts, and
the same causes will, in similar circum.
stances, forever produce the same results
Athens once was free, citizen, favor
lite of the people by an artful story gain
ed trifiing guard of fifty men, ambition
taught him ways to enlarge that number;
he destroyed the commonwealth and
made himself the tyrant of thcAthenians.
Caesar, by the length Of his command in
Gaul, got the affections of his army,
marched to Rome, overthrow the state
and made himself perpetual DICTATOR
Justice blackstone, in his inimitably
clear commentaries, tell us that 'it is cr-
fremeiu dangerous in inh Of liberty II
make distjnct order Of the profession OF
arms: that such an order is an object OF
jeolOusu, anil Mdt the itnrj ond constitution
Of Engidnd are strangers TO it," What
would those authorities have thought of
the illustration of the truth of their prin-
ciples which a standing army is now Civ
ing in free America? Happy shall we be
base as the uses are to which the standing
army of the United States has been
already put, if what has been already
done is not mere entering wedge to
something to be attempted on national
theatre; and with wider and more imme-
diate results.
The celebrated patriot, DIR. Joseph
Warren, afterwards slain at the battle of
Bunker Hill, spoke in a similar vein of
standing armies. He referred to the fact
that even in the dissolutc reign of
Charles I.,when the House of Commons
impeached the Earl of Clarendon of
high treason, the first article on which
they founded their accusation was that
"he had designed a standing army 10 be
raised, and 10 gocern the kingdom." And
the eighth article was that she hat IN
mqjestys piontation." IA terrifying ex-
ample" exclaims DIR. Warren, f'to those
who are now forging chains for this
country" at is further certain" says
DIR. Warren, ''from a consideration of
the nature of mankind, as well as from
constant experience, that standing armies
always endanger the liberty of the sub
.iect."
OF the same purport were nearly all the
numerous and able speeches made
throughout New England during that
critical period. To those who wish to soc
what the fathers of the revolution
thought of standing armies we commend
the "Principles and Acts of the Revolu
tion," by Hezekiah Niles, editor of the
this city, and which has been republished
by Samuel V. Niles this year, under the
commendation of such names as the late
Nice-President Wilson, Secretary Fish,
the late Reverdy johnson, Gov. Hend-
ricks, Chief Justice Waite, and other
justices of the United States Supreme
Court, VIM. NJ Evarts and other leading
members of both the republican and
democratic parties. One of these is Hon.
Joseph Segar, republican candidate for
Congress, from the Norfolk (Na.) district,
who truly says: elf we would continue
imbued with the genuine spirit of free
dom and remain steadfast in our rever-
ence of constitutional liberty we must go
back to the revolutionary sources; in the
language of your patriotic ancestor, we
must 'catch spark from the altar of '7G
and enter into the spirit of past times"
To all which every American freeman
will devoutly say, Amen