An expanded cutter service instead of a permanent navy

An early institutional proposal would have enlarged the Revenue Cutter Service instead of creating a permanent Navy. Opponents regarded a Navy as expensive, aggressive, imperial, and hard to justify in peacetime. Before the permanent Navy existed, the government used revenue cutters when diplomacy required a ship. The expanded cutter force might have received frigate-sized vessels for diplomacy and other maritime duties. The modern Hamilton and Legend classes echo that proposal: the Coast Guard eventually operated ships at roughly frigate scale while remaining a separate service.