At the Constitutional Convention, Delegate Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina, cautions his fellow delegates against developing a military with the capacity to fight foreign wars:

       … [W]e mistake the object of our Government if we hope or wish that it is to make us respectable abroad.  Conquest or superiority among other Powers is not, or ought never to be, the object of republican systems.  If they are sufficiently active and energetic to rescue us from contempt, and preserve our domestic happiness and security, it is all we can expect from them—it is more than almost any other government ensures to its citizens.

       [added 9/18/2021]