Did the Founding fathers think having a standing army was a good idea? Why or why not?

Question

In the Constitution, Article One, Legislative Powers (Congress), Section 8, listing the powers of Congress, there is the following wording;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

Why did they insert the very unusual time limit on the appropriation of money for armies?

Answer 1

I heard once that they wanted to model the army after the Swiss system, where almost everyone has a gun and is ready to defend, but there is little military infrastructure

Answer 2

Because back then, the major economy was farming, and income and taxes were generated in a yearly cycle everytime a harvest occured. If there was an army to be supported, soldiers could not return home to help harvest and that would hurt the economy, and by that taxes.

Answer 3

An understandable question. However, back in those days it took a lot longer to collect, count, disperse, and spend that kind of cash flow. What we do today they couldn't possibly of comprehended.

Answer 4

well a sitting army can't defend?

Answer 5

It's lucky for George W. Bush that he wasn't born in an earlier time and somehow stumbled into America's Constitutional Convention. A man with his views, so depreciative of democratic rule, would have certainly been quickly exiled from the freshly liberated United States by the gaggle of incensed Founders. So muses one of our most controversial social critics and prolific writers,I think the Founding Fathers would be more concerned with the recent burial of the Bill of Rights and its replacement by the Patriot's Act that removes all the Rights mentioned in their Bill. They would be appalled at the abominations that the current administration is putting into place. After all the Patriot;s Act removes all the rights they fought to enshrine in this nation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-hvPJPTi4
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/galleries.htm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_6UivNKD1uo

It is a knee jerk response to 9/11 that has the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves. The single greatest advancement of fascism in United States history, and it's only the beginning...

Really the "USA PATRIOT ACT," and acronym meaning "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act." Like most of the Bush administration's actions, this one is terrifying and sickening. Passed with almost no congressional review in the wake of 9/11, to take advantage of our emotional state, the Patriot Act gives the Executive Branch and law enforcement Orwellian powers of investigation and precedence over the Constitution.

If the Founding Fathers were alive today, they'd probably stage another revolution against our current government.

The Patriot Act is one of the foremost proofs that the United States of America is the most hypocritical nation in the entire world. It is also an attempt on the US Government's part to destroy as much of the Bill of Rights as is humanly possible without everyone noticing. We are waking up now and starting to smell the burnt coffee.

The Patriot Act is a good example of how the USA is well on its way to becoming a police state. We're already a bureaucracy, we may as well take the leap. Basically George W. Bush wiping his @rse on the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of this obscene document, the Patriot Act is to protect freedom in America. Soon we'd probably have more freedom in Burma if this keeps up.

Our country's death knell.

The Americans are ticked off because their rights were taken away and their Constitution torn apart by the Patriot Act. It is a document 342 pages in length with the first 6 pages being the index. The first line after the index is this:

SEC. 2. CONSTRUCTION; SEVERABILITY. Any provision of this Act held to be invalid or unenforceable by its terms, or as applied to any person or circumstance, shall be construed so as to give it the maximum effect permitted by law, unless such holding shall be one of utter invalidity or unenforceability, in which event such provision shall be deemed severable from this Act and shall not affect the remainder thereof or the application of such provision to other persons not similarly situated or to other, dissimilar circumstances.

DOES THIS REALLY SAY ANYTHING? IT IS LEGALESE FOR:

If this bill is a total crock of ****, with only one tiny detail being applicable, that shred will send you to the cooler pal!

Like most bills which our senators and representative are "supposed" to read and understand prior to signing off, it could take a very long time to either agree or disagree with what's written. Thus we get this sort of bullshit shoved down our throats and up our asses on a continuous basis.

This bill like many others has sweeping consequences that only the best lawyers in the world will ever understand completely.

Hey Clyde! Watch out buddy, you just farted on US soil, you may be prosecutable under the USA Patriot Act!

Passed by 98 votes to 1 in congress, the only member against the movement being Russ Fenigold of Wisconsin. The legislation is a maze, legible by only the best lawyers. Basically, it blurs the lines on treatment of detainees. It has led to many incidents of Bush strangling America's liberties: over 950 counts of false charges have been recorded under it, many relating to anti-Bush posters etc. It may not look bad but it will lead to the TIA (Terrorist Information Act), which will allow the government to monitor anything from our financial records to what we ate last night. It's like 1984. By the way, counted the number of American terrorist deaths in the past few years, excluding 9/11: ZERO.

An excuse for George W. Bush (you might want to look him up) to enslave every man, woman, and child AND for him to shred up what is left of the Constitution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-hvPJPTi4

And the Patriot act is supposed to prevent terrorists from killing people to take our freedom. Well, after this how much freedom will we have left?

Probably the biggest example of how fascist America is becoming. An act supported by millions of Bush-loving nut job super-conservatives who are afraid that terrorists have infiltrated America. The Patriot Act allows the NSA,CIA,FBI,ATF,DEA,DHS and law enforcement to spy on you. Includes phone taps, internet records, spy satellites,et

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/galleries.htm

The 342-page document, created as a response to 9/11, that takes away all Americans' rights. Basically, if a person walks down the street incorrectly, or simply speaks out against government policies, they are considered to be a threat, and they will be punished swiftly and severely -- even if they are INNOCENT.

Basically, the entire constitution has been repealed by the passage of this act, and it lays the groundwork for a fascist "police state."

The USA PATRIOT Act is what they mean, when they say that "Freedom Isn't Free."

The legislation that was put into effect in the most immediate haste following September the 11th 2001. The bill gives the law and the federal government almost unlimited power over you. The Patriot act is also known as the raping of the Constitution.