“A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined”
President George Washington, “First Annual Message to Congress [State of the Union]” (January 8, 1790)
Congress did so rather reluctantly after repeated urging from President Washington. Adopting the 1st American regiment and artillery battalion raised during Shays’s Rebellion, the uprising that helped prompt the Constitutional Convention, Congress later increased the army to 1,216 men.
But more than a year later, when Washington delivered the first Address to Congress, America’s military forces were still practically nonexistent and performing poorly in conflicts with Native Americans.
A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.
The proper establishment of the troops which may be deemed indispensable, will be entitled to mature consideration. In the arrangement which will be made respecting it, it will be of importance to conciliate the comfortable support of the officers and soldiers with a due regard to economy.There was reason to hope, the pacifick measures adopted with regard to certain hostile tribes of Indians, would have relieved the inhabitants of our southern and western frontiers from their depredations. But you will perceive, from the information contained in the papers, which I shall direct to be laid before you, (comprehending a communication from the Commonwealth of Virginia) that we ought to be prepared to afford protection to those parts of the Union; and, if necessary, to punish aggressors…
Full Text and Source: Avalon Project-Yale Law School
In 1792, the Calling Forth Act and the Uniform Militia Act required universal military service. but failed to establish a true national militia.
