Compared to President Barack Obama, George Washington had it rough. No executive staff, no modern dental care, and the preferred method of treatment for a throat infection (which killed the nation’s first president) was removing pints of ‘tainted’ blood from the patient.
On the other hand:
“There were no nuclear weapons, no political parties, and the U.S. Army numbered less than 700 men,” says Political Science Professor Ken Mayer, who teaches Poli Sci 408, The American Presidency, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Over the last few weeks, Mayer and his students explored the establishment of the nation’s highest office. So much has changed since 1796, when young America celebrated its first Presidents’ Day (known for almost 200 years as Washington’s Birthday). And yet, says Mayer, what his students are finding most remarkable is that when it comes to the office itself, the job description looks exactly the same as it did 236 years ago.
That would be—short.
“If you were to write down all the explicit constitutional powers of the president, it would be a very short list,” says Mayer. “There are less than 10.”
In the centuries between Washington and Obama, through 27 constitutional amendments, those broad powers, set forth in Article II of the Constitution, have not been altered. And though each president has attempted to put his stamp on the office, they have all behaved in ways that are “remarkably consistent,” according to Mayer.
One of Mayer’s students, Brad Lentz, a senior majoring in political science, finds that “pretty amazing.” Since class began, Lentz and other students have examined the importance of precedent, in the world’s most important position.
“George Washington was the first man to hold the job, and he has always been considered one of our nation’s best leaders,” says Lentz. “For much of American history, if you were President, you probably thought twice before doing something that Washington didn't do, because then you'd almost be implying that you knew better than one of our founding fathers."
Washington came into office with a blank slate, and was keenly aware that everything he did would set a standard.
“As the first of every thing,” he wrote to John Adams, “…it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles.”
Washington’s interpretation of presidential powers has influenced every president from Adams to Obama. For example, Washington used presidential power to issue the Neutrality Proclamation, which kept America out of an erupting war between Britain and France. Congress grumbled, but they weren't in session when Washington had to make the call—so he just did it.
Others have followed suit.
When Obama kept the detainment center at Guantanamo Bay open (in spite of public and Congressional opposition) he was exercising the same broad presidential power as his predecessors. And the nation’s 45th president will almost certainly set a precedent in the murky area of drone warfare. A recent leaked memo from the Obama administration reveals a ‘work-in-progress’ decision-making framework for killing U.S. citizens on foreign soil.
“By now, because of everything that’s gone before, the public expects the president to wield his power in certain ways,” says Mayer. “But even today, the exercise of that can raise difficult questions about how far it extends.”
Lentz says he was interested to learn about fiery Andrew Jackson, snarkily known as “King Andrew” for his high-handed deconstruction of the National Bank, as one example of a president who pushed the boundaries of presidential power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who decided to run for a third term (since there was no rule saying he couldn't), was another.
The class has learned, though, that the Founding Fathers expected more decisiveness from their leader than from the legislature, whose role is too often “to debate things to death.”
“Throughout history, presidents have made certain big decisions when other branches couldn't, and as a country, we've just rolled with it,” says Lentz. “What we've learned in Professor Mayer’s class is that the president is supposed to be somebody who is a lot better equipped to make quick decisions.”