d. The example will be followed here from the same motives which
produced universal imitation there. Instead of deriving from our
situation the precious advantage which Great Britain has derived from
hers, the face of America will be but a copy of that of the continent
of Europe. It will present liberty everywhere crushed between standing
armies and perpetual taxes. The fortunes of disunited America will be
even more disastrous than those of Europe. The sources of evil in the
latter are confined to her own limits. No superior powers of another
quarter of the globe intrigue among her rival nations, inflame their
mutual animosities, and render them the instruments of foreign ambition,
jealousy, and revenge. In America the miseries springing from her
internal jealousies, contentions, and wars, would form a part only of
her lot. A plentiful addition of evils would have their source in that
relation in which Europe stands to this quarter of the earth, and which
no other quarter of the earth bears to Europe.

This picture of the consequences of disunion cannot be too highly
colored, or too often exhibited. Every man who loves peace, every man
who loves his country, every man who loves liberty, ought to have it
ever before his eyes, that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment
to the Union of America, and be able to set a due value on the means of
preserving it.

Next to the effectual establishment of the Union, the best possible
precaution against danger from standing armies is a limitation of
the term for which revenue may be appropriated to their support. This
precaution the Constitution has prudently added. I will not repeat here
the observations which I flatter myself have placed this subject in a
just and satisfactory light. But it may not be improper to take notice
of an argument against this part of the Constitution, which has been
drawn from the policy and practice of Great Britain. It is said that the
continuance of an army in that kingdom requires an annual vote of the
legislature; whereas the American Constitution has lengthened this
critical period to two years. This is the form in which the comparison
is usually stated to the public: but is it a just form? Is it a fair
comparison? Does the British Constitution restrain the parliamentary
discretion to one year? Does the American impose on the Congress
appropriations for two years? On the contrary, it cannot be unknown to
the authors of the fallacy themselves