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To: kiriath_jearim
"The highest number to which a standing army can be carried in any country does not exceed one hundredth part of the souls, or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This portion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men."

I'm not sure I understand this (I'm not sure it make any sense). Is he saying the US can't sustain an army bigger than 25-30 thousand men? If my math is right, the US has 300M souls, so one-hundreth part (is this guy an Olde English speaker?) is 3 million, which sounds about right. Is he this bad at math or did I miss something?
25 posted on 10/17/2006 2:49:05 PM PDT by don'tbedenied
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To: don'tbedenied

I assume that the 25 - 30 thousand figure for a standing army was based on the population of the United Colonies circa 1775. Quotation marks would have been helpful.

I assume that percentage shifted somewhat as industrialization & public education made a bigger percentage of a nation's population 'fit' for military service.


40 posted on 10/17/2006 3:55:25 PM PDT by Tallguy
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