- ANTONE PIERUCCI
- Posted On
This Week in History: Paving the path of the presidency
We seem to be living in the age of the strong man, of the dictator and totalitarian. Putin in Russia and Xi Jinping in China and our very own president an admirer of such men (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/world/asia/donald-trump-xi-jinping-term-limits.html).
We’ve come a long way in 225 years.
There used to be a time when “monarch” and “king” were biting epithets people threw at their political rivals – they were shorthand for the despotic and corrupt, for the very antithesis of what Americans had fought so hard to free themselves of. And from the very beginning, our founding fathers took deliberate steps to steer clear of any hint of such power. The most notable example is George Washington.
George Washington’s inauguration ball was held at a dance hall on Broadway in New York City in 1789. It was a lively night with most of Congress and a range of foreign dignitaries in attendance.
With Martha Washington still back home at Mt. Vernon, the newly-elected president paired off with Mrs. Eliza “Betsy” Hamilton for dancing. “Dancing” might be too generous a term, with Mrs. Hamilton later recalling that the new president walked stiffly through the steps, with a certain “gravity.”
George Washington always was a little stiff, but then again he didn’t know how a president was supposed to act. No one did – the position was completely new to everyone, and dignitaries watched Washington closely that night.
John Adams suggested to Washington that he be referred to as “His Highness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties.” Critics of the tubby vice president suggested Adams be referred to as “His Rotundity.” The barb stuck, and Adams added to his list of grievances, which were many.
Many critics of the American Revolution predicted that George Washington would simply take the place of King George III, becoming in fact, if not publicly, the new American sovereign. This was a line of reasoning that Washington was hyper-aware of, and took every opportunity to scuttle.
So, when he received a letter from one of his commanders during the waning days of the war that advocated just that, he was despondent. And angry.
Washington’s response on May 22 was sharp:
“With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment I have read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, [which are] big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable … Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your country – concern for yourself or posterity – or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind.”
Even when he appeared before Congress in 1783 to “surrender into their hands the trust committed to me” and resigned his commission, people were still skeptical of his true intent.
Those skeptics had a field day when George Washington stood for and was elected America’s first president. And so that inauguration ball was something to be watched.
From that day forth, President Washington was assessed, watched closely by foreign countries and his own alike.
It’s not as if he didn’t have ample opportunity to take as much power as he wished. After all, George Washington was loved by all.
When the question over where to establish the new capital hit the press, one newspaper editor of the day remarked – completely without sarcasm, “The usual custom is for the capital of new empires to be selected by the whim or caprice of a despot.” The editor noted that since George Washington “has never given bad advice to his country,” why not let the new president “point to a map and say ‘here’?”
For the next eight years, President Washington would indeed make some conservative moves, ones that some critics thought outside the bounds of his office and reminiscent of a kingly decree.
When he unilaterally made a treaty of neutrality with England to avoid America getting embroiled in the growing French Revolution, critics declaimed him a tyrant – a King Washington.
Ironically the biggest critic of this overstep by the executive was Thomas Jefferson, who as president in 1803 would in one stroke purchase most of North America for his country without anyone’s consent.
In the end, though, Washington would show that the office of the president was ultimately a limited one, as it should be.
When he decided that he had served his country long enough, President Washington decided the unthinkable – he would step down from office and relinquish all the power he had accumulated.
Checks and balances were built into our Constitution, but it has always been up to the men and women in office to maintain them.
King George III had said that if George Washington ever willingly relinquished his power, he would indeed be the greatest man on earth.
Antone Pierucci is curator of history at the Riverside County Park and Open Space District and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.