Standing Armies and Liberty

"The army is a broad sword, not a scalpel. Trust me, senator. You do not want the army in an American city."
--Major General William Devereaux (The Siege)

Jacob Hornberger shares some great quotes on the threat to liberty--at home--that standing armies present. Wanted to add them here for future reference.

James Madison: "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. 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."

Patrick Henry: "A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?"

Henry St George Tucker in Blackstone's 1768 Commentaries on the Laws of England:  "Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."

Commonwealth of Virginia in 1788: "...that standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power."

Pennsylvania Convention:  "...as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to and be governed by the civil power."

Dwight D Eisenhower: "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience...Yet we must not fail to grasp its grave implications...In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwanted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted."