The unique combination of power, speed and tactical versatility - smaller than a battleship and larger than a sloop - that all navies sent on their most daring missions. In 1794, President Washington signed legislation authorizing the construction of six heavy frigates. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect American commerce from the vicious depredations of the Barbary pirates, or would it drain the treasury and provoke hostilities with the great powers? How large a navy would suffice? The founders - particularly Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and Adams - debated these questions fiercely and switched sides more than once. Before the ink was dry on the Constitution of the United States, the establishment of a permanent military had become the most divisive issue facing the young republic.
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