Note 48 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
On giving his assent to the bill "regulating the military establishment of the United States," the President subjoined to the entry in his diary the remark, that although he gave it his sanction, "he did not conceive that the military establishment was adequate to the exigencies of the government, and to the protection it was intended to afford." It consisted of one regiment of infantry, and one battalion of artillery, amounting in the total, exclusive of commissioned officers, to twelve hundred and sixteen men.