On Presidents’ Day, we celebrate George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and other great American presidents who led this nation through both difficult and hopeful times. This year, it is particularly appropriate that we pause to think about the presidency itself.
The American founders struggled with many aspects of the presidency, from the veto power and the term length to a president’s eligibility for reelection and the manner of election.
One thing the founders were clear about: We should not have a king.
George Washington is often rated the best president in U.S. history. What makes him the “father of his country” was his repeated decision to refuse kingly powers.
At the end of the American Revolution, a victorious General Washington could easily have seized power. But having won the victory for which Congress made him commander in chief, he resigned his commission. King George, unable to imagine a land without a monarch, was flabbergasted: “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
Washington did it again when he resigned from the presidency after two terms. He was remarkably popular and could have been president for life. By stepping down, he reminded Americans that the president is merely a citizen elected to serve for a specified term.
Other founders were equally opposed to a president with monarchical powers. At the Constitutional Convention, George Mason said he “hoped that nothing like a Monarchy would ever be attempted in this Country.” He reminded delegates that “a hatred to [monarchy’s] oppressions had carried the people through the late Revolution.”
On the problem of monarchy, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I am sensible that there are defects in our federal government: yet they are so much lighter than those of monarchies that I view them with much indulgence.”
The founders remembered Thomas Paine’s warning in “Common Sense” that “the King is not to be trusted … a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of monarchy.” Monarchy, Paine wrote, was the “most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry.”
In the Revolutionary era, the oft-repeated lie was that “the king can do no wrong.” Thus, a king had sovereign immunity, meaning that he could not be held liable for criminal or civil offenses. The founders rejected that type of power.
John Adams explained that a ruler is a tyrant if “bound by no law or limitation, but his own will.” (Unfortunately, a majority on the Supreme Court – fond of citing history when convenient – has given that power to the president, at least in a significant and undefined manner.)
Another essential attribute of the presidency is its role in maintaining a separation and balance of powers. Initially, the founders considered having Congress elect the president. But they rejected that system. Unlike a prime minister, the president is elected by electors chosen by the people rather than the legislature. This system is intended to maintain independence between the executive and legislative branches, a separation of powers.
For the system to work, it is essential not only for the president to maintain some independence from the legislature but, equally, for Congress to maintain independence from the president. In his Farewell Address, Washington warned that a consolidation of power in one branch would create “a real despotism.”
Washington also worried that partisanship could turn citizens against one another and make them susceptible to a strong man. Party spirit “agitates the Community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot & insurrection.” This “opens the door to foreign influence & corruption.” Such strife might make citizens willing to trust in “the absolute power of an Individual,” a “permanent despotism.” Congress must diligently perform its duty of maintaining independence from the president and check any presidential effort to amass excessive power.
As John Adams explained, our nation’s foundation is a “government of laws, and not of men.” Kings must not dictate here.
Presidents’ Day is an opportunity to celebrate the skilled and devoted leaders who have led the nation. It is also a great time to remember that we fought the Revolution so that we would not be ruled by kings. After all, America’s founders were emphatic that the president should never be a monarch.
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