The first Congressional investigation, the first time executive privelidge was claimed, the first fight over ... [View all]

... the separation of powers, the first time Congress asked a President to explain himself, the first claims:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Clair%27s_defeat

United States response

News of the defeat reached the eastern states by late November. A French resident learned of the battle from Native Americans and shared the news at Vincennes. From there, a traveler headed east sent word to Virginia Governor Henry Lee, along with an alarm from Charles Scott.[54]

Major Ebenezer Denny carried St. Clair's official report to Philadelphia. Knox escorted Denny to President Washington on 20 December.[54] Washington was outraged when he received news of the defeat.[55] After cursing St. Clair, he told Tobias Lear, "General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the dispatches, saw the whole disaster but not all the particulars."[56] St. Clair left Wilkinson in charge of Fort Washington[56] and arrived in Philadelphia in January 1792 to report on what had happened. Blaming Quartermaster General Samuel Hodgdon, as well as the War Department, St. Clair asked for a court-martial to gain exoneration and planned to resign his commission after winning it. Washington, however, denied him the court-martial and forced St. Clair's immediate resignation.

The House of Representatives began investigating the disaster. It was the first Congressional Special Committee investigation[1] as well as the first investigation of the executive branch. As part of the proceedings, the House committee in charge of the investigation sought certain documents from the War Department. Knox brought that matter to Washington's attention, and because of the significant issues of separation of powers involved, the president summoned a meeting of all of his department heads. It was one of the first meetings of all of the officials together and may be considered the beginning of the United States Cabinet.[57] Washington established, in principle, the position that the executive branch should refuse to divulge any papers or materials that the public good required it to keep secret and that at any rate, it was not to provide any originals. That is the earliest appearance of the doctrine of executive privilege,[58] which later became a major separation of powers issue.

The final committee report sided largely with St. Clair by finding that Knox, Hodgdon, and other War Department officials had done a poor job of raising, equipping, and supplying St. Clair's expedition.[59] However, Congress voted against a motion to consider the committee's findings and issued no final report. St. Clair expressed disappointment that his reputation was not officially cleared.[60]

Within weeks of learning of the disaster, Washington wrote, "We are involved in actual war!"[61] Following up on his 1783 "Sentiments on a Peace Establishment",[62] he urged Congress to raise an army capable of conducting a successful offense against the American Indian confederacy, which it did in March 1792 by establishing additional army regiments (the Legion of the United States), adding three-year enlistments, and increasing military pay.[47][55] That May, it also passed two Militia Acts. The first empowered the president to call out the militias of the several states. The second required free, able-bodied white male citizens of the various states between the ages of 18 and 45 to enroll in the militia of the state in which they resided. Washington would use the authority to call out the militia in 1794 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.[63]



These militias are what the 2nd Amendment was about: the right to carry arms was about allowing anyone to join and train with with a militia.