Presidents: Washington to Adams
The origins of the office of the presidency appeared in our first government
after the American Revolution. The American Revolution ended in 1783 and
the first national government was known as the Articles of Confederation. This
was our first government, not our present government and this is a government
system that no longer exists. We need to investigate the structure of this
government and see why this government only lasted six years.
The Articles of Confederation was a government system based on the lessons of
the American Revolution. This is the only way that this government makes
sense. First it was decided to have no leader of this government. There would
be no president, no king; the Americans had major problems with the king of
England and they wanted to avoid a strong leader. When the states were
colonies, they also had major problems with the strong central government in
England, so power in this new government was placed with the states. This is
why it was a confederation. There would be a central government but it would
be relatively weak and with limited powers. During the revolution the central
government consisted of a committee of wealthy men in New York City; this
central government committee would continue but it would not have certain
powers. It could not tax because taxes led to a revolution and it would not
regulate trade because trade regulations from England also caused problems. It
was also agreed that there should only be state courts no national court system.
This is our first government that began in 1783 and lasted only until 1789.
There were many reasons why this government failed. First, there was no
leader in this government and it is difficult to function in any government
without any kind of leader or spokesman or chairman. Second, state courts gave
rival decisions that caused problems from court to court and from state to state.
Third, the central government was so limited, it could not function well. In
addition, it was agreed that in order to change this government there must be an
agreed of all thirteen states, which was virtually impossible. Next states
government began to rival for power in this government. Finally, while the
majority of Americans at this time were farmers, the farmers had little or no
voice in this government and they felt that the government favored the wealthy,
while the farmers were often in debt.
It was obvious that there were problems in this government when Daniel Shays
in Massachusetts got a few of his unhappy farmer friends together and they
staged a brief revolt against the wealthy in government in Boston. Shays
Rebellion caused many wealthy Americans to begin to seriously question the
effectiveness of the Articles of Confederation. The wealthy began to hold a
series of meetings to discuss what action could take place to change or modify
this government. Finally by the summer of 1787 the wealthy met in
Philadelphia and decided to create new government: our present government
under the United States Constitution.
The changes in our second government were important. First it was decided to
have a leader of the new government; he was to be called president. The idea
was to have a presiding officer of government: a person who would be the chief
administrator and would be the chairman of the new government. This is the
real beginning of the office of the president. Next it was decided to shift power
to the central government. But the concept of federalism was continued; the
concept of federalism resides in a two level system of government. When we
were part of the English empire, we had colonies in America connected to
England; we would now have a central government as well as state
governments. But the power was shifted from the states to the central
government. Plus the central government was given expanded powers. A
national court system was also established. The structure of the central
government was a two part one. There would be a congress and in the congress
would be a Senate. This senate was considered to be the real source of power
and authority in the government. The men in the senate would to be appointed
and each state would have two senators. There was also to be a House of
Representatives based on population; this would give the farmers some imput
in government. Members of the House were elected for two years, while
senators were appointed for a six year term.
After two years of debate on state levels, known as the ratification fight, the
new government or second government was approved. One of the first
priorities of this new government was the election of a first president. This
would be done by that committee of wealthy men in New York City. And they
had requirements for the first presiding office of government. That man must
have wealthy. That man must be relatively conservative. That man must have
good administrative skills. And that man should be popular or at least well
known among the majority of Americans who were farmers. The only person
who really met all those requirements was this man in his sixties from Virginia
known as George Washington. Washington was a man of considerable wealth;
Washington was middle of the road: relatively conservative. Washington was
the chairman of the constitutional congress meeting in Philadelphia; he was
known for his administrative skills. And Washington had been the general of
the American army in the Revolution and was well known and among some
farmers even popular. Washington was now elected first president. But because
he was from Virginia, the South, the vice president was to be from the north. So
John Adams, a wealthy attorney, was chosen to be first vice president.
In April, 1789, George Washington came to New York City and became the
first president of the United States. Who was this man? Who is the real George
Washington? Where did the myths of George Washington come from? George
Washington was born in Virginia of a wealthy family; he received a good
education because he was the male member of a wealthy southern family. He
even attended college, but he did not like college and he was a college dropout.
He really enjoyed detail work: actually he was a born administrator. He loved
to keep detail records and he loved to do things like surveying. His parents did
have him participate in politics, but he hated politics. Even when he had all the
teeth in his mouth he was a poor speaker and he did not like dealing with the
general public. Bottom line- George Washington was not a politician. Our first
president was NOT a politician. Washington was very popular with the woman;
actually he was a womanizer and he became very much interested in a woman
whose husband had died. She had a great deal of money and land and her name
was Martha Curtis. He eventually married Martha Curtis and many writers
wonder his motivation; they feel that he married her to accumulate her wealth.
Between his wealth and her wealth, he purchased Mount Vernon and his job
was to handle his money and land and slaves. By the 1750s there were
problems between the English and the French in the Ohio Valley. The French
were staking a claim and were building forts in that region. Those English in
Virginia were interested in expanding into that same area. So a volunteer
military under George Washington was sent to drive out the French.
Washington was never a very good military leader, but he was a good military
administrator. He failed to drive out the French, but he did get valuable military
experience. With his military experience, this wealthy Virginian was chosen to
be the general of the American army in the revolution. There is no doubt that
Washington did an excellent job in recruiting an army and keep it together;
again he is an outstanding military administrator. But as a military leader in the
field, he was quite weak. He became the master of retreat early in the
revolution and achieved little success in the field. Books tell us that he did not
take a salary; that is correct, but he did take an expense account and often spent
a great deal of money on that expense account. By this time in his life he was
having physical problems especially with his mouth and his bleeding gums. At
the end of the revolution, he returned to Mt. Vernon and Martha. He was very
interested in the new government and how it would protect the wealthy. He was
involved as chairman of the constitutional meeting in the creation of the
constitution and for the reasons already mentioned he became the first president
in the first capital: New York City. He left office in 1796 and would die in
1799. What he died of would never be known for sure, but it may have been a
combination of pneumonia and some sexual disease. Once he died, the myths
of George Washington would appear.
Parson Weems lived at this time in our history and was a con man. He had been
a minister, a writer and held a variety of jobs. He now felt that America needed
a hero and he would make money by creating a hero. So he wrote a book about
the life of George Washington. It made sense that our first president should be
our first hero. But in this book which included a series of stories about
Washington, Weems pictured Washington as a perfect person- a role model for
the ages. Sections of this book began to appear in history texts and the myths of
Washington would begin. Educators decided that Washington would make an
excellent role model for children, so they used the various stories on the life of
Washington to teach moral values. Few of these educators questioned whether
these stories were true or not. There are many levels of the Washington myths
and many examples of the stories could be given. Washington was pictured as
an honest person; the most famous and longest lasting story is that of the cherry
tree story. When George Washington was a child, he decided to cut down his
father's favorite cherry tree. When he was caught by his father, he told his
father, "I cannot tell a lie" and he admitted that he cut down the tree. His father
was so moved by his truthfulness. Washington's strength was evident when he
walked through the woods and picked up heavy fallen trees and when he threw
a dollar across one of the widest parts of the Potomac River. His tendency
toward the brotherhood of man was seen when he broke up fights in school and
lectured his fellow classmates on accepting each other. His courage is evident
in the various war stories including his suffering with his men at Valley Forge.
In fact Weems even pictured Washington as a man for all ages: a near immoral.
One story tells of an Indian who put a gun in his side and pulled the trigger and
Washington dodged the bullet. Over the years Washington has been given credit
for inventing everything from ice cream to a sandwich. Even at our national
museum the Smithsonian Museum there is a marble statue of Washington
ascending to heaven. In spite of the lack of historic truth connected with
Weems' stories, the myths go on.
Now back to the reality of the presidency of George Washington. He came to
New York City and he had a difficult goal. He had to begin a new government.
In order to do that he had to make administrative decisions. Over the years we
still follow his decisions and those decisions have become traditions. There is a
lengthy list of the decisions/traditions of Washington. He initially told people
that the office of the presidency would not be like the position of king and
would not serve for life; he said that the president would be on the same level
as the people. Then he decided to take the oath of office to begin his presidency
and to place his hand on a bible. Presidents today take the oath of office with
their hand on the same bible Washington used. He then decided that he had to
give a speech to begin his presidency; this speech would set the tone of his
presidency and give a preview of what he would do. This speech has become
the inaugural address. Although the content of his speech was adequate, the
delivery was not. We have already mentioned that Washington was not a
politician. Washington was nervous during his speech; he was afraid that his
false teeth would fly out of his mouth(As a bit of trivia, when he became
president he had only one tooth left in his mouth). He nearly fell off the
speaker's platform and due to his nervousness, he put his hand in his pants
pocket and had a hard time removing the hand. He would not make during his
presidency many public speeches.
Washington now created the executive office of government and at the same
time he created the spoils system. The spoils system is the system that every
president has used since Washington. It is the system of bringing friends and
supporters into government and giving them jobs within the executive
department. Of course, the most important jobs created within the executive
department were those which involved the cabinet. Washington also created the
cabinet system; he decided that the post important advisors in the executive
department should comprise his cabinet. He also decided that he needed an
important advisor for every important area of government. The first cabinet
consisted of the following men and areas: Thomas Jefferson was his advisor in
foreign affairs. Jefferson now became Secretary of State. Alexander Hamilton
was his advisor in economic policy. Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury.
Henry Knox was his advisor in military matters and became the Secretary of
War. These were well qualified men for their positions and these were excellent
appointments. Washington now decided that the cabinet would meet with the
president and would report directly to the president. This is a tradition that is
not always accepted well by Congress.
Washington had to deal with a whole series of practical administrative
decisions. He decided that the vice president would have few official duties;
Washington created the insignificant office of vice president. The constitution
said that treaties would be made "with the advice and consent of the senate."
Washington did not know exactly what this meant. He thought it meant that
senators must be involved in all aspects of treaty making. But he decided that
this was not practical, so he made the senate the body that only approved final
treaties. He had to decide where the United States boundary stopped and
started. So he created the idea of territorial waters: that the United States
boundary would extend five miles into the ocean. He decided that if a cannon
on the shore shot at a ship beyond five miles that ship could not be hit by the
cannon. He also had to decide how a president would deal with congress; he
created the tradition that a president had programs and ideas and that congress
would deal with the mechanics of government. For example, he knew that the
government needed money. So he believed that there would be a tax on foreign
imports; in response Congress passed the Tariff Act. He had an idea that there
should be a court system with one court being above all the other courts;
Congress passed the Judiciary Act which established the Supreme Court and
then Washington appointed John Jay to be the first Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. Washington felt that farmers still did not have adequate protection of
their rights; Congress responded with the Bill of Rights that added ten
amendments to the constitution. Other traditions involved his farewell address,
his two term tradition which today is law, and the tradition that the president is
the object of criticism.
Many of the administrative decisions of Washington were made during his first
term as president. From 1789-92, his priorities were to start a government
system. As he was starting the government, he found problems were rising
within his cabinet. Thomas Jefferson believed that the government should favor
the majority: the farmer; Andrew Hamilton believed that the government
should favor the wealthy. These two men had different philosophies of
government and continually differed in the cabinet.
Eventually these two men began to get followers: men who supported their
ideas and the American political system began. We have a two party system; it
was never planned that way. It happened in the cabinet of Washington; while
Washington did not like the idea of political parties, he did favor the ideas of
Hamilton more than Jefferson. Andrew Hamilton is the founder of the
Republican Party tradition; his political party was known as the Federalist
Party. Thomas Jefferson was the founder of the Democratic Party, even though
it was now called the Democratic Republicans. Our political party system had
slowly begun.
In 1792 the small group of wealthy reelected Washington for a second term. He
had little opposition in his first term but the opposition would increase in his
second term and cause him to leave office quite unpopular. In Washington's
second term, he was forced to deal with issues in foreign policy. The French
Revolution had begun in his first term and Americans supported that revolution
because the French had helped us in our revolution. In fact France signed a
treaty of mutual assistance with us during the Revolution; France helped us in
the revolution and with promised that if France needed military help in the
future we would help them. By his second term France was at war with
England. The American people felt that we should help the French, but
Washington thought otherwise. He took neutrality as his foreign policy; he
decided that we were in no position militarily to help anyone. This was an
extremely unpopular policy and it caused Thomas Jefferson to leave his
cabinet. Next Washington sent John Jay to England to resolve a series of issues
with England; Jay returned with the Jay Treaty which solved few issues and
was quite embarrassing to America. Again the opposition increased against
Washington. He was quite sensitive to criticism and yet he now mishandled an
incident at home.
To increase government funding, congress passed a minor tax on whiskey.
There was a great deal of opposition to this tax among some farmers in Western
Pennsylvania and when Washington sent tax collectors from Philadelphia- the
new capital of the United States- these tax collectors were met with resistance.
They were tarred and feathered and sent back to Philadelphia. Washington
remembered the days before the revolution when Americans protested against
English taxes. This led to a revolution. To avoid any crisis like this, Washington
recruited an army to put down this "Whiskey Rebellion." He even led the army
for a while through the woods toward Western Pennsylvania. Some estimate
that as many as 30,000 joined the army to put down a handful of farmers. No
farmers resisted the army and eventually two men were arrested and eventually
let go. One was deaf and the other had mental illness. Washington was further
criticized for his handling of this Whiskey Rebellion. Washington could no
longer task the criticism; he gave a farewell address which was printed in the
newspapers. He not only said farewell, but he gave two famous warnings:
beware of political parties and beware of alliances in foreign policy. Then he
left office and created the two term tradition that no president can break today
and that only one president broke in our entire history. Washington left on a
low, but he is rated one of the best early American presidents.
Washington had a difficult goal: to start the government. This may be the most
difficult goal of any American president. Due his outstanding administrative
ability, he did a very capable job of making decisions to get the government
going. Over the years these decisions have become traditions. Sure Washington
was not a politician; but there were no political parties when he began
president, plus the nation needed an administrative leader, not a politician. It is
also true that he relied too much for many of his decisions on Alexander
Hamilton. But he is still rated one of the best presidents ever.
1796 featured the arrival of political parties. But politics was quite limited by
our standards. John Adams, the vice president was the nominee of the
Federalist Party: the first Republican party. Thomas Jefferson was the nominee
of the Democratic Party. In this election only the wealthy voted and they voted
for a list of individuals. When the votes were counted, Adams became the
second president of the United States and Jefferson became the second vice
president- even though these men were of opposite parties. John Adams is rated
one of the worst president in our early history; it is possible that he is the worst
of all.
Adams was only a one term president and is the only Federalist president in our
entire history. His personality was unfit for the presidency; he was jealous and
very insecure. He took advice from few people and was very much a loner. He
was very jealous when the government began to celebrate the birthday of
Washington. His attitude toward being president was that it was an honor, not a
job. He saw himself more as a king than a working president. Plus his wife did
not like Philadelphia and wanted him to spend much of his presidency on their
farm in Quincy, Massachusetts. Actually he was away from the capital of
government for one year out of four years. And in those days communications
were really slow. Even when he was there in Philadelphia, he slept more than
any early president. Adams in known as the puppet president because he was
controlled and manipulated by Alexander Hamilton, the leader and founder of
the Federalist Party. Plus Adams became very much of a partisan president.
Hamilton wanted to destroy the Democratic Party; he saw the party as a
challenge to the control of government by the wealthy. Adams went along with
the Hamilton program. Hamilton influenced Congress to pass the Alien Act and
Sedition Act. The Alien Act gave the president the power to deport undesirable
aliens. Hamilton discovered that many foreigners joined the Democratic Party,
so if many foreigners were kicked out of the United States, this would hurt the
Democratic Party.
The most partisan act of all was the Sedition Act. The Sedition Act gave the
president the power to punish those who criticized the government which was
now dominated by the Federalists. This was known as the "gag law' and was
directed at the destruction of the Democratic Party. The law even went so far as
to jail those who criticized the government. Matthew Lyons was a Democrat
who criticized the government; not only did he criticize the government but he
spit on people he did not like and earned the nickname "spitting" Lyons. Due to
this ability to spit, he has usually been left out of our history. Lyons eventually
went to jail and became the Democratic Party martyr. But his spitting did not
stop in jail when he spit out the window and spit on fellow prisoners as well as
prison guards.
Adams was becoming more and more unpopular even within his own party.
Even though he may be responsible for the creation of our first navy in a mini
crisis with France, he accomplished little as president. The Washington
traditions continued. Of course, it did not help Adams that his vice president
was the Democratic Party leader Jefferson. In 1800 in spite of his unpopularity,
the Federalist created a tradition of renominating the present president: the
incumbent president. The Democrats again nominated for president Thomas
Jefferson. This would be the last election of voting for individuals from a list.
When the ballots were counted, there was a tie. But it was a tie between
Thomas Jefferson and the man the Democrats nominated for vice president
Aaron Burr. According to the constitution, when no one gets a majority, the
election goes to the House of Representatives. Our founding fathers never
realized that we would have a two party system and that only two elections in
our history ever went to the House of Representatives. The Federalists had a
major influence over the House of Representatives and many in the House
refused to vote. They believed that if Democrat Jefferson was elected there
would be a "revolution" in government and that the farmers would take control.
The final decision in this election was up to Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton
disagreed with Jefferson's philosophy, but many writers discovered that Burr
had coveted Hamilton's wife. So Hamilton picked the lesser of two evils and in
1800 Thomas Jefferson became the first Democratic President in American
History.
Was there a "revolution"? The answer is no. Jefferson saw that the system was
working, even though it favored the wealthy. So he did not change the system,
but he did change the emphasis and direction of government. He did try to
move toward majority politics. This is known as the Jefferson tradition. That
when a new president with a new political party comes into office, the system
of government remains the same, but a new direction and new emphasis in
government takes place. Thomas Jefferson was a two term president. Thomas
Jefferson was the first president of the Virginia dynasty: twenty four years of
Virginia Democrats. And Thomas Jefferson would be rated above average as
president. His policies were a mixed bag. Jefferson to John Quincy Adams will
be the subject of our next topic
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