Timeless Words of Wisdom....

"For defence against invasion, their number is as nothing; nor is it considered needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up, in time of peace, for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumstances where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only force which can be ready at every point, and competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring citizens, as formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading force, it is best to rely, not only to meet the first attack, but, if it threatens to be permanent, to maintain the defense until regulars may be engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we should, at every session, continue to amend the defects which, from time to time, show themselves, in the laws for regulating the militia, until they are sufficiently perfect: nor should we now, or at any time, seperate, until we can say we have done every thing for the militia which we could do, were an enemy at our door."
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- Thomas Jefferson, Presidents' Messages, Dec. 8th, 1801. Library of Congress - A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
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"Considering the extraordinary charater of the times in which we live, our attention should be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and wish to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbant on us, at every meeting, to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the states have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defence, the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's security, will present this as among the most important objects of their deliberation."
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- Thomas Jefferson, Message of President Jefferson No.27, Nov. 8, 1808. 10th Congress, 2nd Session. [A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875. American State Papers. Library of Congress.]