r merits, and claims to that provision, need
only be known, to interest all the feelings of humanity in their
behalf. Nothing but a punctual payment of their annual allowance can
rescue them from the most complicated misery, and nothing could be a
more melancholy and distressing sight, than to behold those who have
shed their blood or lost their limbs in the service of their country,
without a shelter, without a friend, and without the means of
obtaining any of the necessaries or comforts of life; compelled to beg
their daily bread from door to door. Surfer me to recommend those of
this description, belonging to your state, to the warmest patronage of
your excellency and your legislature.

"It is necessary to say but a few words on the third topic which was
proposed, and which regards particularly the defence of the republic,
as there can be little doubt but congress will recommend a proper
peace establishment for the United States, in which a due attention
will be paid to the importance of placing the militia of the union
upon a regular and respectable footing. If this should be the case, I
would beg leave to urge the great advantage of it in the strongest
terms. The militia of this country must be considered as the palladium
of our security, and the first effectual resort in case of hostility.
It is essential, therefore, that the same system should pervade the
whole; that the formation and discipline of the militia of the
continent should be absolutely uniform, and that the same species of
arms, accoutrements, and military apparatus should be introduced in
every part of the United States. No one who has not learned it from
experience, can conceive the difficulty, expense, and confusion, which
result from a contrary system, or the vague arrangements which have
hitherto prevailed.

"If in treating of political points, a greater latitude than usual has
been taken in the course of this address, the importance of the
crisis, and magnitude of the objects in discussion, must be my
apology. It is, however, neither my wish nor expectation, that the
preceding observations should claim any regard, except so far as they
shall appear to be dictated by a good intention, consonant to the
immediate rules of justice, calculated to produce a liberal system of
policy, and founded on whatever experience may have been acquired by a
long and close attention to public business. Here I might speak with
the more confidence, from my actual o