Page "Civilian control of the military" Paragraph 7

Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States were suspicious of standing militaries.

As Samuel Adams wrote in 1768, " Even when there is a necessity of the military power, within a land, a wise and prudent people will always have a watchful and jealous eye over it ".

Even more forceful are the words of Elbridge Gerry, a delegate to the American Constitutional Convention, who wrote that "