pursuit of useful science, may have their minds impressed with a strong
sense of the duties they owe to their God, their instructors and each
other, so that when they arrive to a state of manhood, and take a part
in any public transactions, their hearts having been deeply impressed
in the course of their education with the moral feelings--such feelings
may continue and have their due weight through the whole of their
future lives.

Permit me to call your attention to the subject of the Militia of the
Commonwealth.--A well regulated militia "held in an exact subordination to
the civil authority and governed by it," is the most safe de fence of a
Republic.--In our Declaration of Rights, which expresses the sentiments of
the people, the people have a right to keep and bear arms for the
common defence. The more generally therefore they are called out to be
disciplined, the stronger is our security. No man I should think, who
possesses a true republican spirit, would decline to rank with his
fellow-citizens, on the fancied idea of a superiority in circumstances:
This might tend to introduce fatal distinctions in our country. We can
all remember the time when our militia, far from being disciplined, as
they are at present, kept a well appointed hostile army for a
considerable time confined to the capital; and when they ventured out,
indeed they took possession of the ground they aimed at, yet they
ventured to their cost, and never forgot the battle of Bunker Hill. The
same undisciplined militia under the command and good conduct of
General Washington, continued that army confined in or near the
capital, until they thought proper to change their position and
retreated with haste to Halifax.--If the Militia of the Commonwealth can
be made still more effective, I am confident that you will not delay a
measure of so great magnitude. I beg leave to refer you to the
seventeenth article in our Declaration of Rights, which respects the