It must, indeed, be numbered among the
greatest blessings of America, that as her Union will be the only source
of her maritime strength, so this will be a principal source of her
security against danger from abroad. In this respect our situation bears
another likeness to the insular advantage of Great Britain. The
batteries most capable of repelling foreign enterprises on our safety,
are happily such as can never be turned by a perfidious government
against our liberties.
The inhabitants of the Atlantic frontier are all of them deeply
interested in this provision for naval protection, and if they have
hitherto been suffered to sleep quietly in their beds; if their property
has remained safe against the predatory spirit of licentious
adventurers; if their maritime towns have not yet been compelled to
ransom themselves from the terrors of a conflagration, by yielding to
the exactions of daring and sudden invaders, these instances of good
fortune are not to be ascribed to the capacity of the existing
government for the protection of those from whom it claims allegiance,
but to causes that are fugitive and fallacious. If we except perhaps
Virginia and Maryland, which are peculiarly vulnerable on their eastern
frontiers, no part of the Union ought to feel more anxiety on this
subject than New York.
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