Mr. Randolph mingled his erratic and visionary views in the discussion, and exerted himself to the utmost, to foment prejudice against a regular army; the effect of which would be worse than that of the locusts of Egypt, famishing, impoverishing, and deluging the country with blood, and erect a throne, to some idol conqueror. Said Mr. Clay in reply, ‘I am not the advocate of standing armies: but the standing armies which excite most my fears, are those which are kept up in time of peace. I confess I do not perceive any real source of danger in a military force of twenty-five thousand men in the United States, provided only for a state of war, even supposing it to be corrupted, and its arms turned by the ambition of its leaders against the freedom of the country. I see abundant security against any such treasonable attempt. The diffusion of information among the great body of the people, constitutes a powerful safeguard. The American character has been much abused by Europeans, whose tourists, whether on horse or foot, in verse and prose have united in depreciating it. It is true we do not exhibit as many signal instances of scientific acquirement in this country, as are furnished in the old world, but it is undeniable that the great mass of the people possess more intelligence than any other people on the globe. Such a people, consisting of upwards of seven millions, affording a physical power of about a million of men capable of bearing arms, and ardently devoted to liberty, cannot be subdued by an army of twenty-five thousand men. The wide extent of country over which we are spread, is another security. In other countries, France and England for example, the fall of Paris or London is the fall of the nation. Here are no such dangerous aggregations of people. New York, and Philadelphia, and Boston, and every city on the Atlantic, may be subdued by a usurper, and he will have made but a small advance in the accomplishment of his purpose. Even let the whole country east of the Alleghany, submit to the ambition of some daring chief, and the liberty of the Union will be still unconquered. It will find successful support from the west. A great portion of the militia, nearly the whole, I understand, of Massachusetts, have arms in their hands, and I trust in God that this great object will be persevered in, till every man in the nation can proudly shoulder the musket, which is to defend his country and himself. A people having, besides the benefit of one general government, other local governments in full operation, capable of exerting and commanding great portions of the physical power, all of which must be ♦prostrated before our constitution is subverted――such a people have nothing to fear from a petty contemptible force of twenty-five thousand regulars.’