S2 E1: George Washington and Executive Power

Our first topic this season is our first president, George Washington, father of the country, general, surveyor, statesman, slave owner, whiskey distiller, debtor, and a man whose dental history every poor kid with braces hears about. Washington was the first man to hold the office, of course, and some still argue that he was the best.  Everyone agrees that he set the standard by which all other presidents would be judged.

Today, we will explore the presidency of George Washington and his biggest challenge: the creation of the presidency itself. Article II of the Constitution, which lays out the powers of the President, is remarkably short. It was one of the last things that the founders wrote down during the Constitutional Convention, and it does not give many details about the role of the president in American life. Instead, the founders left George Washington, our nation’s first president, in charge of figuring out what kind of day-to-day role the executive would play in leading the nation.

So how did our first president, George Washington, legitimize the new nation, respond to crises like the Whiskey Rebellion, and create key presidential norms? To answer these questions, we turned to two scholars. First, we talked to Dr. Julian Davis Mortenson, the James G. Phillip Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. As a scholar of constitutional law and presidential power, he had a lot to teach us about how George Washington shaped the presidency.

Next, we turned to a familiar voice, the Center for Presidential History’s own Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky. Lindsay revealed how the decisions Washington made in office set the precedent for generations of presidents to come. In the process, George Washington created the scaffolding for a very powerful executive branch and a very powerful president.

Explore all this and more in our first episode of Season II: George Washington and Executive Power. To learn more, visit pastpromisepresidency.com.