The Congressional Power to Raise Armies: The Constitutional and Ratifying Conventions, 1787–1788

When the American people wrote and ratified the Constitution they were the heirs of a tradition of opposition to a standing army. The tradition was derived from tales of Stuart tyranny and was strengthened by the recent victorious contest with the professional soldiery of Great Britain and Germany in the War for Independence. This attitude was carried into the Constitutional Convention and the ratification controversy. Even the friends of the Constitution were doubtful of the military power it granted to the Congress and where friends of the Constitution had reservations, enemies had hostility. Opponents of the Constitution almost unanimously attacked the army clause. Some attacked the power to raise and support an army because they preferred to rely upon the state militia. Others accepted the necessity of a national force but thought of it as a dangerous tool which should be fenced about with legal limitations.