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Interpreting Article II, Section 2: George Washington and the President's Powers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2019

Lindsay M. Chervinsky
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Abstract

This article explores Washington's annotated copy of the Constitution and the Acts of Congress (hereafter called the Acts of Congress to remain consist with the label Washington had placed on the front cover) to reveal new insights into his constitutional interpretation. Held in a private collection until 2012, this article is the first to examine Washington's notations in the Acts of Congress for their value as statements about political authority. Washington's comments in the margins of his volume suggest an evolving view of presidential power and constitutional limitations on the executive branch as early as January 1790. His margin notes on the Acts of Congress served as blueprint for his defense of presidential authority and the expansion of the executive branch in the 1790s. Finally, the annotated Acts of Congress inserts Washington's ideas about the presidency into the debate surrounding originalism by revealing how his analysis of the language evolved to meet the demands of governing, leading him to reject the delegates' intent for Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

Type
Original Article
Information
Law and History Review , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 725 - 741
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 2019 

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Footnotes

She received her PhD from the University of California, Davis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Her book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, will be published by Harvard University Press in the spring of 2020. She thanks Douglas Bradburn and the staff at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington for introducing her to Washington's Acts of Congress and sharing the photographs used in this article. She also thanks Alan Taylor for reviewing an earlier version of this article and Gautham Rao for the opportunity to participate in this special volume.

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