Essay On The Framers

838 Words2 Pages

When the Constitution of the United States was written, the Founding Fathers first established an executive and subsequently debated how much power should be vested in the President. In crafting the new American government, the Framers incorporated the beliefs of philosophers like Hobbes and Locke who wrote extensively on the subject of executive power. This resulted of in a specific set of enumerated presidential powers laid out in the Constitution, similar to the vision of John Locke. This delineation, along with other powers given to Congress and the judicial branch, was intended to both limit and check the president so that he would not become too powerful. However, as Clement Fatovic notes, the Framers also realized that there would …show more content…

As a result, the Constitution was vague about certain implied powers that would allow presidents to wield a tremendous amount of power in extreme circumstances (Fatovic, 2009). This power, which would allow presidents to skirt or even contradict the letter of the law at certain times, is known as presidential prerogative. Based on the Lockean framework, however, it is understood that the president must justify this use of power to the other branches of government and to the people. Presidents like Abraham Lincoln serve as examples of how this power should be wielded and subsequently justified. Others, such as Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton used this prerogative power to advance their own interests, while failing to justify their actions in any capacity. This paper asserts that both Nixon and Clinton abused prerogative during their presidency. Using John Locke and Abraham Lincoln as definition and example respectively, this paper will evaluate the exercise of prerogative by Presidents …show more content…

The requirement that the action be for the public good is perhaps most fundamental to Locke’s standards. James Pfiffner notes that much of Locke’s argument regarding government is that the executive exists to “protect the safety, life, liberty and property of the people” (2008, 23). Pfiffner explains that the correct use of prerogative would be similar to someone who bulldozes a house in order to stop a spreading fire (Pfiffner, 2008). This action would be in the time of an emergency, as the whole town could eventually catch fire. The action was definitely for the good of the public in that it stopped the fire from spreading any further. Finally, the action is temporary in the sense that it was only the house that caused the immediate danger that was destroyed and all others were left alone and temporarily in that you cannot just go around knocking down houses. This temporary aspect of prerogative was intended by Locke to preclude any buildup or codification of executive power. This means that as soon as the time of emergency is over, the legislature is supposed to revert to being the more powerful branch of government and the president must go back to obeying all of the laws. Furthermore, Schlesinger argues that in the aftermath of the emergency, the executive must defend and explain his actions and “he would be sustained and vindicated in that action only if his

Show More
Related

  • The Court Case of Clinton v. The City of New York

    835 Words  | 2 Pages

    For doing so, this is where the case of Clinton v. The City of New York originated from. In this case there were constitutional issues that were raised, major arguments presented, and the final ruling from the Supreme Court. The case of Clinton v. City of New York brought about some constitutional issues like whether or not the president should be able to have the kind of power that he does. The Snake River Farmers’ believe that President Clinton, actually, shouldn’t be allowed the power to delete a portion of any bill.... ...

    Read More

  • Presidential Powers: A Comparsion of Predencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the President of the United States, a president have powers that other members of the government do not. Presidential power can be defined in numerous ways. Political scientists Richard Neustadt and William Howell give different views on what is presidential power. These polarized views of presidential powers can be used to compare and contrast the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

    Read More

  • Lincoln's Suspension Of Habeas Corpus Analysis

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American Civil War not only proved to be the country’s deadliest war but also precipitated one of the greatest constitutional crises in the history of the United States. President Lincoln is revered by many Americans today as a man of great moral principle who was responsible for both preventing the Union’s dissolution as well as helping to trigger the movement to abolish slavery. In retrospect, modern historians find it difficult to question the legitimacy of Lincoln’s actions as President. A more precise review of President Lincoln’s actions during the Civil War, however, reveals that many, if not the majority, of his actions were far from legitimate on constitutional and legal grounds. Moreover, his true political motives reveal his

    Read More

  • Separation Of Powers Dbq Essay Power

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    You little tyrant king george off with your head.Since the Americans had a bad experience with one person having too much power they made a constitution that guarded against tyranny by, dividing power, making the branches able to check or limit each other, and dividing power between big and little states.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Constitution

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    The responsibilities would include managing debt, creating national monetary and fiscal policies, as well as managing the national tensions that lead to crisis. Men like Alexander Hamilton, George Washington and John Adams, were in favor of the Constitution, supported the Bill of Rights and subsequently, a larger more powerful federal government. In their views for support of a federal government they proposed the Constitution and later added the first ten amendments that make up the Bill of Rights (Lecture). While framing the Constitution issues taken into consideration were states boundaries, representation quotas and veto rights (Countryman 172). Two main plans were proposed to solve the plethora of issues facing the country – one by James Madison and one by Patterson. The fundamental differences was where the federal government derived their power. Patterson advocated for the federal to obtain their power from the states rather than the people, whereas Madison advocated for the power of the centralized government owing its power directly to the people (Countryman 178). After years back and forth conversations, a three tiered system was created that would ensure the integrity of the system by separation and complete independence from each other, thus listing specified duties and power allotted to the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary powers of the United States

    Read More

  • Framers Of The U.S. Constitution

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    All of the framer of the U.S. Constitution had one thing in common, they all felt that the government didn't have enough power. At the same time they didn't want to give the government to much power. They all knew if there was power to be held someone was going to hold it and over use it The framers didn't want to create a system like Britain or England.

    Read More

  • Essay On Second Continental Congress

    492 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Second Continental Congress was an organization that started having meetings to make decisions on where to attack the British and how to defend themselves. This foundation was created because it was during the war in Lexington and Concord, so they needed someone to help make their decisions and help decide attack methods. The Congress representatives originally met during the Revolutionary War; their first meeting being on May 10, 1775. The representatives (a person or people sent to represent something) came from 12 of the original 13 colonies.

    Read More

  • The Supreme Court Case: United States V. Nixon

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    Presidential power has increased all the time. Compared to the first U.S. president George Washington, the modern presidency has more power and departments (Patterson, 2014). The expansion of presidential power increases the ability of the Executive branch to regulate and protect our society. On the other hand, the president may abuse his presidential power. Like in this case, the President Nixon monitored his staff’s conversation at the Oval Office, and he let some people to set up the recording device in the Watergate complex (“teachingamericanhistory.org”, n.d.). In my opinion, the president Nixon abused his presidential power to set up these recording devices. Even though he had the excuse that the conversations he recorded may contain the national security issue, the method that he get information was not appropriate. He cannot just record everything without other people’s permission to achieve his goal. These recording conversations might have other people’s privacy. Even though the U.S. constitution does not state the word privacy, it can be derived from the Bill of Rights (Patterson, 2014). The people’s privacy is protected now, and any other person cannot invade their privacy without permission. Therefore, the president Nixon violates other people’s privacy, which was against the Constitution. Because the Constitution is the Supreme law of the U.S., the President Nixon had to follow it (Patterson, 2014). Thus, when the presidential power conflicts with the Constitution, anyone in Executive branch should obey the

    Read More

  • The War Powers Act

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    The farmers of our Constitution recognized the need for separate powers as well as checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. This in turn helps to "provide for the common defense". Separation of powers prevents one branch from becoming excessively dominant over the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.: In order to accede to the preamble and adhere in its goals, the Constitution ensures this is by clearly stating the authority of the Congress in Article I Section 8 and the authority of the President in Article II Section 2. These fixed powers in the Constitution clearly state that one cannot act without permission or authorization of another. It is designed to that one cannot take action without consent of the other branch. This is prevalent in Article I Section 7 that states the process of how a law is passed. The fact that there are clear steps to the initiation of a law states the importance of separation of powers so that a single dominant branch does not arise.

    Read More

  • Essay On Ratification Of The Constitution

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Constitution is the foundation of our county it represents liberty and justice for all. We are able to live freely and do, as we desire because of the constitution. The constitution was, signed September 17, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It took time and many debates were held before an agreement was achieved in both the drafting and ratification of the constitution. These disagreements came with several compromises before the constitution was fully ratified on May 29, 1790, with Rhode Island being the last and the thirteenth. The First, challenge was the Articles of Confederation; it was a sort of a draft of the Constitution but was weak and inadequate. Second, obstacle was the Anti-Federalists fight for more

    Read More

  • Presidential Power

    450 Words  | 1 Pages

    Richard E. Neustadt, the author of Presidential Power, addresses the politics of leadership and how the citizens of the United States rate the performance of the president's term. We measure his leadership by saying that he is either "weak or "strong" and Neustadt argues that we have the right to do so, because his office has become the focal point of politics and policy in our political system. Neustadt brings to light three main points: how we measure the president, his strategy of presidential influence, and how to study them both. Today we deal with the President himself and his influence on government action. The president now includes about 2000 men and women, the president is only one of them, but his performance can not be measured without focusing on himself.

    Read More

  • Drafting the Constitution

    2555 Words  | 6 Pages

    By the late eighteenth century, America found itself independent from England; which was a welcomed change, but also brought with it, its own set of challenges. The newly formed National Government was acting under the Articles of Confederation, which established a “firm league of friendship” between the states, but did not give adequate power to run the country. To ensure the young nation could continue independently, Congress called for a Federal Convention to convene in Philadelphia to address the deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation. While the Congress only authorized the convention to revise and amend the Articles the delegates quickly set out to develop a whole new Constitution for the country. Unlike the Articles of Confederation, the new Constitution called for a national Executive, which was strongly debated by the delegates. There were forces on both sides of the issue trying to shape the office to meet their ideology. The Federalists, who sought a strong central government, favored a strong National Executive which they believed would ensure the country’s safety from both internal and external threats. The Anti Federalists preferred to have more power in the hands of the states, and therefore tried to weaken the national Executive. Throughout the convention and even after, during the ratification debates, there was a fear, by some, that the newly created office of the president would be too powerful and lean too much toward monarchy.

    Read More

  • Structure of the Federal Court System

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before the adoption of the United States Constitution, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation. These articles stated that almost every function of the government was chartered by the legislature known as Congress. There was no distinction between legislative or executive powers. This was a major shortcoming in how the United States was governed as many leaders became dissatisfied with how the government was structured by the Articles of Confederation. They felt that the government was too weak to effectively deal with the upcoming challenges. In 1787, an agreement was made by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a national judiciary needed to be established. This agreement became known as The Constitution of the United States, which explicitly granted certain powers to each of the three branches of the federal government, while reserving other powers exclusively to the states or to the people as individuals. It is, in its own words, “the supreme Law of the Land” (Shmoop Editorial Team).

    Read More

  • The Framers And The Creation Of The Electoral College

    196 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1787, the Electoral College was created by the Framers who were also called the “Founding Fathers”. The Electoral College was created because the Framers did not want a large group of people to directly elect the president because it could cause confusion and disorder for an event that is very important to the United States. Some of the Framers favored the idea of selecting the president should be by Congress, or if the selection of the president should come directly from the popular election. With having his conflict of whom should elect the representative of the whole United States, the Electoral College was created. In this institution, the members that have the final say correspond to the number of representatives in the Senate

    Read More

  • Constitutional Republic

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    Between 1787 and 1791 the Framers of the US Constitution established a system of government upon principles that had been discussed and partially implemented in many countries over the course of several centuries, but never before in such a pure and complete design, which we call a constitutional republic. Since then, the design has often been imitated, but important principles have often been ignored in those imitations, with the result that their governments fall short of being true republics or truly constitutional. The Framers of the Constitution tried very hard to design a system that would not allow any one person or group within the government to gain too much power. Personally, I think they succeeded. In order to guard against what one of the Founding Fathers called an "excess of democracy," the Constitution was built with many ways to limit the government's power. Among these methods were separating the three branches, splitting the legislature so laws are carefully considered, and requiring members of Congress to meet certain criteria to qualify for office. The Founders did leave a few problems along with their system.

    Read More

More about Essay On The Framers

Open Document