The Evolution of the Office of the President of the United States of America

Sean Burns

• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781638144670
• eBook ISBN: 9781638144687
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Evolution of the Executive Office of the Presidency is a history book that deals specifically with the Office of the Presidency. How did it begin? How was it created? How did the office itself evolve from when President General George Washington stood on the steps of Federal Hall in New York City in 1789 to the office that is now occupied by incumbent President Joseph P. Biden?

Due to recent historical events, we as voters and taxpayers must heed caution in whom we select as a candidate for the office by asking the basic questions of will this candidate respect the integrity of the office for the actions of past presidents? How has it reflected in the office itself as a whole in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson was meeting with the ambassador of France? His intent was to buy the port of New Orleans. However, after corresponding with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambassador was able to go beyond that and do one better by offering President Jefferson the entire Louisiana territory.

While the United States Constitution has legal provisions on how to add new states to the union, nothing in that near-absolute document gives the chief executive the wherewithal of how to obtain the land so that new states can be added.

Article II of the United States Constitution enumerates the powers of commander in chief of all military forces. However, what kind of orders, directives, or missions that the president can order military personnel to undertake is not listed.

The intelligence of, the educations, past experiences of the men themselves—what was it that specifically had proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they would be the kind of men that we ought to be electing to the presidency? George Washington was the first man elected to the presidency. The Founding Fathers had designed the office with him in mind.

While George Washington was the incumbent president from 1789 to 1797 he established a very high standard of ethical morality. Every man that has been elected after him was measured by that standard of ethical morality. So we as a nation have collectively looked to such a standard in those we have elected.

That high standard of ethical morality was implicit to the kind of man that George Washington was, so we ought to be looking for persons that would fit that standard. This work started with a few essays written in college about the presidency. They have been expanded on, reedited, and revised to where it is that the reader will be able to enjoy.

While it is not a biographical presentation of the presidents themselves, the book is a way of measuring the presidents to determine if they fit the standard. Two main sources of reference for this work: the philosophy of government that was devised by French philosopher Charles Secondat, better known as the Baron de Montesquieu, as well as what Henry David Thoreau had written in Civil Disobedience.

"The best government is one that governs least"; "the best government is one that governs not at all"—which of these two philosophies has a president administrated by in acting as the chief magistrate? How have their actions, both positive and negative, reflected on the office?

This book is about many things: history, ethics, policy decisions, philosophy of government that the presidents had prior to and during their respective administrations. How have these philosophies and their experiences and political beliefs reflected on the office?

Within the contents of this book is a fictional story, "The Trial of a President."

For the president that is on trial is three hundred pounds, a billionaire, and married to a former Playboy playmate. However, the defendant is not being tried in a regular municipal criminal court of law. Based on the saying "a jury of one peers," other past presidents are trying him in an extraordinary court of law. The presiding judge is an ex-president. The prosecution and defense counsels are also former presidents.

How did this approach to the presidency violate the oath that he took? An oath that George Washington had devised, how—in terms of the Article II parameters—did he abuse the power of the office according to the precedents that was established by the men that held the office before him?

Table of contents

• Trial of a President