U.S. political development presents a complicated problem; although war-making drove state-making, the process unfolded on two levels — local and “national.” On the one hand, on the basis of the Declaration of Independence from England in 1776 each of the thirteen former British colonies constituted itself as a sovereign state; on the other hand, the states agreed to form an ad hoc confederation for the purpose of prosecuting the war for independence from Britain. It is not really accurate to refer to the Confederation as a “national” government. However, during the eight years that the Revolutionary War lasted many of those who served in the Continental Congress and in the Continental Army began to think in terms of a national state. Political struggles between those who sought to retain local control (localists) and those who wanted the individual states to form a national state (nationalists) placed control of the military front and center. Debates in the Continental Congress as well as in local state legislatures revolved around the issues of mobilization and demobilization of soldiers. How should the troops be mobilized — republican virtue and patriotism or the market? If the troops were to be paid, how much and who should pay them? Should the war be fought by local state militias or one large army? The problem of how to “get rid” of the army, as Alec Campbell puts it (in Chapter 4), surfaced in debates over whether officers should have a pension, one of the hottest political struggles.