ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the historical suspicion of standing armies, the general stability of the political system, the small size and relatively broad recruitment base of the professional officer corps-placed constraints on regular army officers, discouraging them from forming exclusive praetorian elite. Officers exaggerated the extent of public hostility, however, and came to see politicians as adversaries. A corollary of officers' distinction between political and military life was a negative view of politicians. In contrast to the discipline and devotion to duty which allegedly typified the military profession, politicians appeared shifty, divisive, self-serving, and too willing to compromise principles. The development of officers' political attitudes and activities before the Civil War had a major impact on the conduct of civil-military relations in the United States. Political conditions in the republic blurred the distinction between civil and military affairs. The most elaborate political campaign waged by the Corps of Engineers before the Civil War occurred during the early 1850s.
