"A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty"

"A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence ag[ain]st. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people."--James Madison, Friday, June 29, 1787, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 [Farrand's Records, Volume 1, Pg. 465]