Note 102 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Writings of Washington, III. 278; IV. 115; V. 328. Mr. Sparks has preserved an anecdote, which shows the perpetuation of this feeling about standing armies, and evinces also that Washington possessed more humor than has been generally attributed to him. In the Convention for forming the Constitution of the United States, some member proposed to insert a clause in the Constitution, limiting the army of the United States to five thousand men. General Washington, who was in the chair, observed that he should not object to such a clause, if it were so amended as to provide that no enemy should ever presume to invade the United States with more than three thousand.