What were the founders' different visions for the presidency?

0:04There are two ghosts at the banquet. One is slavery. They can't talk about it at all. They can't even use the word. That species of property. The second ghost, they can't stop talking about, it's monarchy. They meet for four times to talk about the powers of the executive. I challenge you to read Article II of the Constitution and tell me what a President of the United States can do and not do. It's unclear. The power of the presidency will not be defined by the Constitution, but by Washington's own presidency. The way in which he defines the office, which is much bigger than anybody intended. They can't talk about the presidency or executive power without thinking about George III and the war that they fought against the tyranny

0:50of that particular administration and person. All discussions are held hostage to theories, that some of them are conspiracy theories but the fear that if you grant executive power to a single person, that person will almost for certain become a dictator and a lifetime appointment. That's Caesar, that's Cromwel, that's the pattern. Therefore, the discussions about the power of the presidency and then how to elect them are almost impossible to follow in the speeches that are given.

1:25Is it going to be one person or three people? One from New England, one from the middle states, one from the southern states. Is it a lifetime appointment? Hamilton gets up and gives a six-hour speech. It's his only speech at the convention in which he argues for an elected monarch who will serve a lifetime appointment. I don't know whether he really believed that because it's going to be hanging over his head for the rest of his life, that he's a vowed monarchist. It's possible that Hamilton is being maybe overly clever. He's trying to make such an extreme position that when they compromise on something a little bit less, it'll be acceptable. In the end, the resolution is not achieved because of an argument. The resolution is achieved because of one person sitting in the room and his name is George Washington.

2:15He is the singular figure. The convention itself would have never succeeded if he hadn't put his name on the list of people coming to the Convention on the Virginia Plan. The decision about the presidency is completely resolved by the fact that, well, we don't know how much power this office should have, but we do know that this is the guy that's going to occupy the office initially unquestioned. If Washington, by the way, knew that that was going to happen, I'm not sure he would have come to the convention because no president in American history did not want to be president more than George Washington. Nevertheless, at this point is then worth noting, when they think about the president, they can't reach a theoretical understanding of how to define the office, they can reach a very practical and personal decision

3:00that the first president will be one person, Washington, and he will be elected for a four-year term that is renewable, but it doesn't say for how long. Washington will set the limit on that in his presidency.