Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive, by Ray Raphael: A Book Review

By James Barasch on September 11, 2014

The Presidency is the pre-eminent symbolic office of the American Republic, and a presidential election a well-known political event. Over the two centuries of American history, the presidency has evolved into an extremely important position invested with a large and nebulous array of powers, but in the early history of the Republic, it was highly uncertain that a Chief Executive with meaningful authority would be established at all. Founding generation historian Ray Raphael relates the philosophical debates behind, and eventual success of, the presidential idea in his new book “Mr. President: How and Why the Founders Created a Chief Executive,” a story as fundamentally rooted in the origins of the United States as the story of the Revolution itself. Though the office significantly evolved after the founders finished their work, the fundamentals of our political system, and many American perceptions of their president, were established by seminal early holders of the office such as George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Indeed, modern presidents can trace many of their duties to the arguments, philosophical clashes, and compromises hammered out by these remarkable men.

Having recently won a war against the King of Great Britain in 1783, many members of the Constitutional Convention, tasked in 1787 with revising the defunct Articles of Confederation, were naturally wary of establishing a strong executive office. Their suspicions was amply reflected by the majority of the American population, and in legislatures across the country, though presiding officers guided debates and kept discussions on track, they were rarely invested with any meaningful power. To an influential minority of Americans, represented by the brilliant and loquacious Alexander Hamilton, however, a powerful Chief Executive office was the only way through which the American Republic could successfully defend itself and its interests against the menacing European monarchies across the ocean. During the convention, Hamilton and his allies like Gouvernor Morris proposed a presidency with vast authority and election for life, and they bitterly clashed with other delegates. Eventually, under the erudite guidance of James Madison, the convention agreed to invest an executive with nebulous, potentially vast executive powers that were nevertheless constrained by Congress and the Judicial Branch, as well as a four-year term. Nevertheless, Raphael argues that this powerful presidency was accepted by the American people because it was understood that George Washington, a national hero capable of transcendental leadership, was to be the first President of the American Republic. Washington was careful to exercise his newly-vested power modestly and established many presidential precedents, most especially the tradition of a two-term presidency. Without Washington’s guiding and unifying presence, however, the American political landscape rapidly fractured and evolved into the nation’s first two-party system under Presidents Adams and Jefferson, a development relatively unforeseen by the founders, but one that would come to dominate American political history to the present day. Nevertheless, by the end of Thomas Jefferson’s second term, the Presidency had firmly entrenched itself in the American political landscape with expanded powers and moral authority to become an effective and authoritative head of government.

There are many books written about American presidents and the American presidency, but Ray Raphael delivers his early history of the office with aplomb and a story-telling verve that lends freshness and a new perspective to the familiar tale of the Constitutional Convention and Early American political history. Extensively using James Madison’s notes on the Convention, as well as the copious letters, diaries, and political treatises produced by the loquacious and opinionated Founders, Raphael lends a feeling of being a “fly on the wall” of history in the making. Mr. President, is a must read for American history buffs and political gurus alike.

 

Rating: *****+

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