Second In Command To Congress Analysis

Hi Nadja,

I think today we can hardly imagine a time when the Executive Branch was second in command to Congress, but based on what we learned in the last section, that is actually what the framers had intended. Remember how it was still fresh in their minds that they had emerged from under a monarchy and they intended to never experience that again? Also, that many delegates refused to attend the Constitutional Convention? That was because they had no desire for a centralized government and that's not what the people wanted either. Most colonists at the time were perfectly content with the idea of state sovereignty. In the last chapter, we saw the video with Professor Freeman where she says that the Federalists ended up having their way not …show more content…
It was the fact that they were being taxed *without consent* and that was an extremely big deal to them. So, the Constitution was written with that in mind. The framers had no intention of giving the presidential office an authority to act without the consent of Congress. The expansion presidential authority began with Jefferson because he acted with a total disregard for the Constitution and the will of Congress. On one hand, he campaigned for a limited Federal government and a strict adherence to the Constitution, but once in office he decided that a president was entitled to a variety of ‘implied powers’ that allowed him to completely overstep his bounds. That’s interesting, because when his political rival, Hamilton, first claimed the existence of implied powers in order to establish the First Bank, Jefferson fought vigorously to oppose him, then as President he invoked Implied Powers for himself in order to make the Louisiana Purchase without first gaining the consent of Congress. That deal went way beyond anything the framers had envisioned. Then there was the Embargo Act of 1807. The embargo was so immensely unpopular with the American people that it required Jefferson to use the threat of military force