How did George Washington shape the presidency?

0:04The possibility that George Washington would be the chief executive heavily influenced the proceedings of the convention because whenever someone talked about there being one executive versus many, the person favoring the one executive was basically invoking Washington. They all thought he was going to be the chief executive or certainly one of them. They can envision Washington being that Chief Executive and delegates during and after the convention said that the prospect that Washington would be the chief executive resulted in an executive that was far more powerful than many delegates support at the outset of the convention. They saw Washington and said, well, we can confidently propose power in Washington because he's not a power hungry person. He famously gave up his military commission to Congress at the close of the American war and was widely praised for it because many people in his position would have used his military authority to overthrow the civilian government and establish a military government.

1:04He could have crowned himself king like Napoleon did. Apparently, George III said, "If Washington does this, he'll be the greatest man in the world." He was viewed with reverence for having done this, for having retired. When you think about someone as possibly being the first chief executive and you think this person is full of virtue and not tempted by power, then you're more apt to give the institution that that person heads up more power.

1:28Think of the counterfactual, what if Richard Nixon had been president and they had a constitutional convention after his presidency. I think the presidency will look remarkably different than the one we have today. Because they would have been fighting the battle of trying to contain and trying to limit a Richard Nixon. Instead, they were thinking about the sanguine prospect of George Washington. Several people who favored a weaker executive said, we would have had a weaker executive, but for Washington. What precedence did he establish besides the two term precedents? He did a lot of things that some people might think were wrong, but it becomes established practices. He superintended foreign affairs of the United States. Congress has considerable authority over foreign affairs, but he made a number of foreign affairs judgments without the consultation of Congress, including the Neutrality Proclamation,

2:17which barred Americans from aiding France in their war with Great Britain. A very controversial proclamation. In fact, because most Americans favored France, our ally during the Revolutionary War. He asserted removal authority over executive officers where there was no statutory warrant for it. He you would remove officers, even though Congress had never said that he could, like marshals and attorneys and ambassadors. He established a number of precedents, and he was cognizant that he was establishing precedence. He thought that he had to deliberate very carefully lest he establish a precedent that was mistaken. Many other precedents he established still exist with us today. Because of course, what you start doing often influences what you continue to do going forward.