American Military History, Volume 1 by Richard W. Stewart

Postwar problems revealed a number of serious defects in the Articles of Confederation. The federal government lacked a separate executive branch and a judiciary. Although Congress exercised a certain amount of executive as well as legislative power, it lacked the power to tax. To some of the delegates the conflicts and dissension between the states over the western lands seemed to carry the seeds of civil war. Rioting and disturbances in Massachusetts throughout the fall and winter of 1786 strengthened the pessimism of those who feared the collapse of the new nation. A severe commercial depression following on the heels of an immediate postwar boom was causing particular distress among the back-country farmers. Angry mobs gathered in the Massachusetts hills, broke up the meetings of the courts, harried lawyers and magistrates out of the villages, and began to threaten the government arsenal in Springfield.

CONGRESS AND CIVILIAN CONTROL The framers of the Constitution were deeply concerned over the potential danger of military power. Hence, they carefully crafted a separation of the powers concerning national security issues between the executive and legislative branches. The framers designated the President as "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States." To balance this executive authority, they stipulated that Congress would "raise and support Armies … provide and maintain a Navy … make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces," and "provide for calling forth the Militia." Consequently, the founding fathers effectively precluded either the executive or the legislature from having sole power over the military while ensuring that civilian control over the military was a basic principle of the new United States.