Robert Yates(?), a non-signing Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, using the penname “Brutus,” publishes an anti-federalist essay, warning that ratification of the proposed Constitution for the united States will result in the establishment of a standing (large, peacetime, professional) army.  In paragraphs 17 and 18 he writes,

       It is a thing very practicable to give the government sufficient authority to provide for these cases, and at the same time to provide a reasonable and competent security against the evil of a standing army—a clause to the following purpose would answer the end:

       As standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, and have often been the means of overturning the best constitutions of government, no standing army, or troops of any description whatsoever, shall be raised or kept up by the legislature, except so many as shall be necessary for guards to the arsenals of the United States, or for garrisons to such posts on the frontiers, as it shall be deemed absolutely necessary to hold, to secure the inhabitants, and facilitate the trade with the Indians: unless when the United States are threatened with an attack or invasion from some foreign power, in which case the legislature shall be authorised to raise an army to be prepared to repel the attack; provided that no troops whatsoever shall be raised in time of peace, without the assent of two thirds of the members, composing both houses of the legislature.

       NOTE: Although the identity of “Brutus” is not known for sure, many scholars believe him to have been Robert Yates, an Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court.

       [restored 10/4/2021]