When Europe is in war, treble that number might
be necessary, to be distributed among those particular harbors which
foreign vessels of war are in the habit of frequenting for the purpose
of preserving order therein. But they would be manned in ordinary, with
only their complement for navigation, relying on the seamen and militia
of the port if called into action on any sudden emergency. It would be
only when the United States should themselves be at war that the whole
number would be brought into active service, and would be ready in the
first moments of the war to cooperate with the other means for covering
at once the line of our seaports. At all times those unemployed would be
withdrawn into places not exposed to sudden enterprise, hauled up under
sheds from the sun and weather, and kept in preservation with little
expense for repairs or maintenance.
It must be superfluous to observe that this species of naval armament
is proposed merely for defensive operation; that it can have but little
effect toward protecting our commerce in the open seas, even on our own
coast; and still less can it become an excitement to engage in offensive
maritime war, toward which it would furnish no means.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 11, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I now lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United
States according to the latest returns received by the Department
of War.
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