The only countries with significant military establishments that were “standing” in peacetime at the time Madison wrote the above were nations that found themselves at war more often than not: Britain, France, Prussia and Spain. The rest had decorative palace guards.

But a major reason Madison wrote the Federalist along with Jay and Hamilton was the lack of a credible standing military force and the lack of means of the United States to raise ad hoc forces (the two abilities effectively the same).

Britain had undertook in 1783 under the Treaty of Paris to vacate Detroit and it had not done so since under the Articles of Confederation neither a standing force nor the taxation power to raise an ad hoc force existed.

Barbary corsairs had not molested Colonial American shipping prior to 1776 for the rulers of the Barbary States on the northern coast of Africa had treated with the British and agreed not to molest her trade including colonial trade. But by 1790 United States merchant ships could not enter the Mediterranean Sea.

And as a result of the Constitution, the United States did acquire, in miniature, a standing force in peacetime. At a minimum then, and given the threat from Somali pirates, today, a nation needs to ensure free passage for its merchant shipping and to protect its coasts against evasion and (if its revenue comes from tariffs as was the case for the USA at that time) smuggling.

Historically illiterate fantasizing about Liberty would NOT be admired by the Founding Fathers.

Crack a book.