Politics and the Evolution of the Army Reserve

This thesis examines failed attempts to create an effective federally controlled militia from 1790 until 1920. From the time President Washington and Henry Knox failed to persuade the Continental Congress to establish a federally controlled militia in 1790, numerous military and political leaders over the next 150 years repeated similar efforts only to be denied by the political environment in Congress. Attempts to rectify war and peacetime deficiencies in the state militia by the War Department and political leaders first met with ideological protests concerned with the impediment of states' rights and the threat of a large standing army controlled by a central government. These concerns gradually became political rhetoric utilized by political supporters of the National Guard including lobby groups led by the National Guard Association.