National service in the United States has a long tradition, extending to the founding of the country. National service takes multiple forms in the U.S., including community service, military service, and other forms.
Military national service
Thomas Jefferson lobbied heavily to ban a professional, standing army, and pushed for the creation of a universal and classified militia system that obligated every physically capable male to render service. Though he failed to have such a clause written into the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights, Jefferson continued to push for a universal and classified militia until his death in 1826.
Led by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists believed that a professional, standing army under the control of the federal government was necessary.
The Federalists won the debate, in part because of circumstances beyond their control. The first of these circumstances was Shays' Rebellion. The uprising was triggered by veterans of the American Revolutionary War who were losing their farms to unscrupulous lenders and regressive taxes in Massachusetts that heavily burdened small farmers to repay the war debt from the very war they fought in. Individuals unable to pay were often thrown into debtors' prisons. The various local militias that comprised Shay's "Regulators" went from town to town, shutting down Debtor's Courts and tax collection. They were eventually defeated by 4,400 mercenaries hired by Governor James Bowdoin in cooperation with Boston financiers. The political spin from the incident was that militias could not be relied upon and controlled, despite the exceptional circumstances that caused some of the Massachusetts militiamen to rebel in the first place.
The second circumstance was the Battle of the Wabash (Fort Recovery, Ohio) in the Northwest Indian War in 1791. A force of 1,000 Miamis, Shawnees, Buckongahelas, and Delawares massacred a militia-heavy US Army under the control of General Arthur St. Clair. The Native Americans inflicted a 97% casualty rate on St. Clair's force, making it one of the worst losses in US military history. In response, President George Washington and Congress raised the Legion of the United States, a professional combined-arms brigade of cavalry, artillery, and infantry under the control of one of Washington's old subordinates, General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The Legion defeated the Western Confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, thus affirming the place for a federally controlled, standing army in the new country, ostensibly to fight Native Americans on the Frontier.
The door was closed on the issue with the Militia Act of 1792. The 1792 Act codified the responsibility of all Americans in providing for the Nation's defense and mandated that every physically capable male between the ages of 18 and 45 be available for military service. The 1792 Act did not classify the militia (set service requirements according to age, i.e., 18- to 21-year-olds perform active service, 21 years and up perform voluntary or contingency service), or make the provision for select units (active-duty units that might serve alongside the regular Army), or provide uniform and detailed regulation throughout the States. Lastly, it did not provide financial ways and means to bring a National Militia into being.
In essence, the Militia Act of 1792 was a compromise between all parties. The Federalists would not have to pay for the militia, which was always a concern. Also, many of the Anti-Federalists did not want the Federal Government meddling in the regulation of their states' militias. They regarded it as an improper extension of federal power.
Washington and Jefferson remained skeptical. Both wanted a classified or select militia, and they predicted the inadequate results of the 1792 Act. In 1805, Jefferson attempted to improve the system as President, but his efforts did not gain the support of Congress. In many states, the militias gradually devolved until existing almost exclusively on paper by the 1840s.
The creation of the federal draft
During the War of 1812, President James Madison and United States Secretary of War James Monroe sought a military draft, but Congress vehemently opposed it. Conscription continued to remain the domain of the States through levies to form militias. The federal draft was first applied in the American Civil War, though on a very limited basis with only 2% of the Union Army being draftees. It was reinstated again for World War I with the Selective Service Act of 1917.