"As to war, I am and always was a great enemy, at the same time a warrior the greater part of my life and were I young again, should still be a warrior while ever this country should be invaded and I lived"
About this Quote
A soldier confessing he hates war is a familiar pose; Daniel Morgan makes it sting by refusing the easy moral exit. He plants a flag in a hard contradiction: war is abhorrent, yet fighting can be obligatory. The line works because it’s not an abstraction about peace but an inventory of lived identity - “a warrior the greater part of my life” - delivered with the plainspoken bluntness of someone who’s seen what combat costs.
The intent is reputational and political. Morgan, a Revolutionary War general celebrated for tactical brilliance (most famously at Cowpens), is speaking into a young republic that distrusts standing armies and fears militarism. By calling himself “a great enemy” of war, he signals republican virtue: no appetite for conquest, no romanticizing bloodshed. But he immediately narrows the condition under which violence becomes legitimate: invasion. Not glory, not expansion, not ideology - defense.
The subtext is a claim about civic character. Morgan suggests the good warrior is defined less by love of fighting than by discipline and restraint: you fight because you must, not because you want to. Even the hypothetical “were I young again” reads like a moral stress test. Age should buy him distance, but the duty remains, implying that citizenship in a fragile nation is permanent readiness, not permanent aggression.
In the late 18th century, that distinction mattered. The Revolution needed fighters; the republic needed to ensure those fighters didn’t become its new ruling class. Morgan’s sentence is a tight bridge between necessity and skepticism, patriotism without appetite.
The intent is reputational and political. Morgan, a Revolutionary War general celebrated for tactical brilliance (most famously at Cowpens), is speaking into a young republic that distrusts standing armies and fears militarism. By calling himself “a great enemy” of war, he signals republican virtue: no appetite for conquest, no romanticizing bloodshed. But he immediately narrows the condition under which violence becomes legitimate: invasion. Not glory, not expansion, not ideology - defense.
The subtext is a claim about civic character. Morgan suggests the good warrior is defined less by love of fighting than by discipline and restraint: you fight because you must, not because you want to. Even the hypothetical “were I young again” reads like a moral stress test. Age should buy him distance, but the duty remains, implying that citizenship in a fragile nation is permanent readiness, not permanent aggression.
In the late 18th century, that distinction mattered. The Revolution needed fighters; the republic needed to ensure those fighters didn’t become its new ruling class. Morgan’s sentence is a tight bridge between necessity and skepticism, patriotism without appetite.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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