Greetings: As you are a practical group, yet with a philosophical turn of mind, you have sought my opinion on basic questions of government. I answer that leaders have but two duties: internally, to promulgate just laws and maintain order; externally, to provide for the security of the state in defending it from strangers. Of these two, I turn my attention in this testimony to the problem of maintaining the security of the state, for without this all other questions of government are moot. The first question, therefore, is how best to maintain the security of the state, whether through arms or by some other means.

To answer this one must look to the very nature of men. The history of all nations has been conflict and warfare. Therefore at all times and in all places men have found it necessary to arm themselves for defense against the attacks of their enemies.