From Kentucky's earliest days of settlement in the 1780s to the
Whig and Democratic squabbles of the 1830s, militia companies functioned
as political organizations by agitating for specific goals, by campaigning
for favorite candidates, and by providing a path to elected office for
their politically-ambitious members. In addition, militia-sponsored holiday
celebrations and political rallies facilitated the dissemination of political
ideologies and partisan agendas, and fostered the creation of a national
mythology. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries before
mature political parties developed, the militia's high visibility, especially
the notoriety of the officers, coupled with their preexisting organizational
structure to make companies proto-political organizations.
During the Jacksonian era, citizen-soldiers joined the rest of the American population and enthusiastically embraced the rabid partisanship and maturing two-party system that permanently altered the political landscape. The militia, while continuing to expand participation in the political process, became increasingly partisan during the hotly contested campaigns of the 1830s and 40s. Like it or not, the expanding and increasingly partisan political process captured the militia, just as it had the rest of America. By educating Kentuckians and engaging them in the political process, the militia furthered the process of democratization that proliferated throughout the nation during the first half of the nineteenth century. In the early republic, militiamen often trained more with political slogans than firearms, and prepared for the next election rather than the next war.