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This paper explores the early years of the American republic, the early American presidency, and state-building in the young nation. The presidencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson will be considered in terms of their relationships to the military. Scholars of American political development, such as Laura Jensen and Richard John, have recently begun to pay more attention to the nation's early years and have demonstrated that there was indeed a significant central state apparatus in this era. We will show how the ideological debates over the nation's military shaped its development, especially focusing on the importation of the radical Whig tradition of opposition to standing armies, which were understood as hostile to republicanism. This episode in American state-building indicates how early ideological opposition to a stronger central state often morphs into a program of cooptation, when those who were anti-statist realize that they can appropriate a previously opposed function for their own purposes. In this case, Jefferson's opposition to the strong Federalist military transmuted into qualified support, as part of the building of a Republican state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the early years of the American republic, the early American presidency, and state-building in the young nation. The presidency of Thomas Jefferson will be examined in terms of his relationship to the military. Jefferson's ideological opposition to a strong Federalist military transmuted into qualified support, as part of the building of a Republican state. This episode in American state-building will require a rethinking of partisan regime theory to explain how this new regime did not simply shatter parts of the old order, but also mutated them into becoming newly loyal parts of a Republican regime. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]