Military Peace Establishment Act

The Military Peace Establishment Act documented and advanced a new set of laws and limits for the U.S. military. It was approved by Congress and signed on March 16, 1802, by President Thomas Jefferson, who was fundamental in its drafting and proposal. The Act outlined in 29 sections the rules, the number of officers and military personal and the management of provisions that would be granted to the military overall. The Act also directed that a corps of engineers be established and "stationed at West Point in the state of New York, and shall constitute a Military Academy" whose primary function was to train expert engineers loyal to the United States and alleviate the need to employ them from foreign countries. Jefferson also advanced the Act with political objectives in mind.

Upon assuming the presidency in 1801 President Jefferson believed that the military was too large and noted that it was dominated by members of the Federalist party and lacked its own corps of engineers. He felt that the military overall should be reduced in size and that it needed to recruit and train its own engineers who would be stationed at a military academy. Calls for a military academy were first entertained by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and others during the American Revolution. At that time Jefferson disagreed with Hamilton's belief that such a military academy should be under the management of the federal government. As President, however, Jefferson abandoned the constitutional reservations he had held against federal control of a national military academy.

Jefferson had always felt that the "useful sciences" were important in education and in the protection of the young nation. In December 1800, while he was formulating his ideas for the military, Jefferson agreed to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn's proposal to have only one regiment of artillerists and two regiments of infantry. Jefferson also consulted Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours in a letter asking, "what are the branches of science which in the present state of man, and particularly with us, should be introduced into an academy"? du Pont responded with a proposal of an all inclusive plan of national education with primary schools, colleges, and four specialty schools – medicine, mines, social science and legislation – and "higher geometry and the sciences that it explains." With emphasis on the importance of math and the sciences both Jefferson and du Pont maintained that the academy would be of great benefit to the nation. du Pont in his letter to Jefferson proclaimed : "No nation is in such need of canals as the United States, and most of their ports have no means of exterior defense."

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