1806 Thomas Jefferson - Military Preparedness

In 1806, President Thomas Jefferson closed out his sixth annual address to Congress with an encouragement to Congress to press down on the path to military preparedness.  America had concluded the war in Tripoli and there was a sense of peace at home, but the nations of Europe were embroiled in war.  As Jefferson explained, "we can not rely with certainty on the present aspect of our affairs".    It had been only 16 years since George Washington was first inaugurated as President, and the United States could find itself at war with the major powers of the world at any time.   In these short years, America was beginning to build a military, but Jefferson warned that we must not be reactive.   We must make every "reasonable provision" to prepare for whatever may come our way, but we can not expect "armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon".    If we did this, we would never be without them and our resources would be exhausted trying to stop dangers that may never come to fruition.   Worse, we would be unable to react to real dangers that we face.   Instead, America needs to move at a "steady, perhaps a quickened, pace"   It may help us to understand Jefferson's perspective when Jefferson spoke of a "steady, perhaps a quickened, pace" by reviewing a bit of military history .   Here is a time line of military preparedness policies (as delivered in a state of the union address) from 1790 to 1806.

1790 Washington proposes a well regulated Militia.

1792 Militia act gives the president the authority to call out militia of the several states.

1792 U.S. Army suffers it's first defeat against the Indian Warriors under Little Turtle.

1793 Washington announces the Proclamation of Neutrality in French and British wars.

1794 Washington sends 15,000 troops to squelch the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania.

1794 Washington presents a bill to Congress for the construction of 6 large battleships.

1795 Congress delegates the power to call forth the Militia to the President.

1795 Washington signs the Jay Treaty with Great Britain

1795 Washington signs Pinkney's treaty with Spain.

1796 Washington urges Congress to begin securing a Navy.

1796 French seize American ships in the French West Indies.

1797 John Adams refuses to bribe France for peace (XYZ affair)

1798 John Adams calls French acts an unequivocal act of war.  Quasi war with France begins.

1798 Congress authorizes a provisional army of 20,000 men for protection against an invasion.

1798 Congress authorizes private American vessels or "privateers" to arm themselves for defense.  

1798 Congress passes "An Act of the relief of sick and disabled seamen'.

1799 Congress authorizes the building of six public armed vessels to fight in the Quasi-War.

1800 John Adams urges Congress to fortify the sea ports and harbors.

1800 John Adams signs a treaty with France recognizing American neutrality.  Quasi war ends.

1800 John Adams discharges the provisional army.

1801 Congress authorizes 6 ships to protect American commerce along the Islamic Barbary Coast.

1802 Jefferson proposes to build a dry-dock where the ships could be laid up dry and sheltered. 

1803 Congress authorizes an additional 4 vessels of wars with 16 guns each 15 smaller gun boats.   

1805 Jefferson recommends placing heavy cannons in our sea port towns.

1805 Jefferson proposes a system of active duty classification for military based upon age.

1805 In Tunis, American flag flies over foreign soil across Atlantic for the first time.

1806 Congress authorizes 50 additional gunboats for the protection of the coasts.

1806 Congress authorized the president to keep a navy in times of peace (Naval Peace Establishment)

1806 Federal road project is begun.  It would be later widened into a military road.

These policies were all fresh in the minds of Congress when Jefferson brought them all together into one cohesive plan.  With a quick and steady pace we were defending our sea port towns and waters, building the most organized and effective militia,  augmenting it with a strong voluntary force, and never preying on our own resources until actually called into use.   America could not sit idly by and watch, so much rested upon the "promptitude with which these means can be brought into activity".  It had been only 16 short years, but America had only a few more before we would be tested by the War of 1812.

Here is the full except of Jefferson's sixth annual address on his plan:

"This, fellow citizens, is the state of the public interests at the present moment and according to the information now possessed. But such is the situation of the nations of Europe and such, too, the predicament is which we stand with some of them that we can not rely with certainty on the present aspect of our affairs, that may change from moment to moment during the course of your session or after you shall have separated. 

Our duty is, therefore, to act upon things as they are and to make a reasonable provision for whatever they may be. Were armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon, we never should have been without them. Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which have never happened, instead of being reserved for what is really to take place. A steady, perhaps a quickened, pace in preparation for the defense of our sea port towns and waters; an early settlement of the most exposed and vulnerable parts of our country; a militia so organized that its effective portions can be called to any point in the Union, or volunteers instead of them to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be ready, yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use. They will maintain the public interests while a more permanent force shall be in course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with which these means can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us, in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and vigorous movements in its outset will go far toward securing us in its course and issue, and toward throwing its burthens on those who render necessary the resort from reason to force."

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