Politics and the Evolution of the Army Reserve: 1790-1920
Abstract
This thesis examines failed attempts to create an effective federally controlled militia from 1790 to 1920. From the time President Washington and Henry Knox failed to persuade the Continental Congress to establish such a militia in 1790, numerous military and political leaders over the next 150 years repeated similar efforts only to be denied by the politicians 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 (NGA). Political supporters rallied against establishing a federally controlled militia several times between 1790 and 1920. In 1903 and 1908, Senator Charles Dick, President of the NGA, engineered the defeat of federally controlled militia initiatives by sponsoring bills to increase the role and responsibility of the National Guard instead of creating another "reserve" component. This study focuses on the efforts of politicians and military leaders, especially John McAuley Palmer, who attempted to create a federally controlled militia from 1912 to 1920. Their efforts resulted in the National Defense Act of 1916, which included the Organized Reserve Corps, later renamed the Army Reserve. Partisan politics and lobby groups also helped defeat post-WW I military policies proposing a more robust Army Reserve. In 1920, both the Democrats and western Republicans rallied to defeat Palmer's expanded Army Reserve proposal by making the opposition of universal military training a 1920 election issue. As a result, the post-war military policy became only an amendment to the National Defense Act of 1916, creating a hollow Army Reserve manned mainly by officers. (48 re7
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 18, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA428902
Entities
People
- James J. Groark
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College