The Standing Army is to the nation what the sword was to the modern gentleman, the stiletto to the Italian, the knife to the Spaniard, the pistol to our slave-master,--furnishing, like these, the means of death; and its possessor is not slow to use it.
Sumner critiques the dangers of a standing army by comparing it to various weapons associated with violence and oppression.
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Slave Power, necessity of political action against the, II. 207.
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