Today in History: West Point

On this day (March 16) in 1802, Thomas Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act to define the number of officers and military personnel that the United States would maintain in times of peace. The Act was actually driven by Jefferson’s distrust of the military and fear that it was dominated by the Federalist Party and he used it not only to shrink the army but to purge it of the officers he considered to be the most partisan Federalists. The Act also established the Military Academy at West Point to train engineers so that the U.S. military would not be dependent on foreign engineers.