Presidential Aspirations

FROM THE EYES OF THE PRESIDENTS
Excerpts from The Look-it-up Book of Presidents by Wyatt Blassingame

Preamble
The author of this book never met a President of the United States and divided his votes evenly between Democratic and Republican candidates. The son of two teachers, he was born in Demopolis, Alabama, and spent his early years in small Alabama towns where his parents' collection of books often became the town library. After graduating from the University of Alabama, he worked as a reporter, seved as a Navy lieutenant in WWII, and made a career of writing. Until his death, he lived on an island off the coast of Florida with his wife.

Any natural-born citizen of the United States who is over the age of 35 and has lived in the United Staes for 14 years or more may run for the office of President. The President is the chief executive of the United States. According to the Constitution, he "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." From time to time, he informs Congress in his State of the Union message what has been done amd what needs to be done. Although he cannot force Congress to act, he can suggest a program for them to consider. As leader of his political party, he can often see that that program is carried out when his party has a majority of seats. He can also prevent Congress from acting by using the presidential veto.

The President plays the chief part in shaping foreign policy. With the Senate's approval, he makes treaties with other nations and appoints ambassadors. However, he can also make executive agreements with other nations without the approval of the Senate. He nominates Cabinet members, Supreme Court Justices, and many other high-ranking officials. These nominations must be approved by the Senate. However, he can fill thousands of other important positions under his own power. The President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and commissions officers in all branches of the service.

The voters of each state choose a number of electors equal to the number of senators and representatives they have in Congress. The electoral college, made up of the electors from every state, then chooses the President by majority vote. The electors usually vote for the candidate supported by the voters of their state. When there are more than two presidential candidates and none gets a clear majority, Congress selects the President from the candidates who received the most votes.

The President is elected to a term of four years. Since Article XXII of the Constitution became effective in 1951, the President may be elected to no more than two terms. The new President takes office at noon on January 20 of the year following his election, on taking his oath of office: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Presidential Aspirations

George Washington did not believe in government by political parties. He thought his job was to be President of all the people, and he appointed to his Cabinet the best men he could find. These men, however, did not always agree with Washington or with each other. Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, wanted a very strong central government run only by men who were both rich and intelligent. Thomas Jefferson, secretary of State, believed that most powers should belong to the states. He had more faith in the people than Hamilton did. Political parties began to form around these two men. People who agreed with Hamilton were called Federalists. Those who agreed with Jefferson were called Republicans (much later this party would change its name to the Democratic party, and a new Republican party would be formed).

With his great personal influence, Washington might have made himself dictator. He might have told Congress what laws to pass and what not to pass. On the other hand, he might have left everything to Congress if he had wished. Instead, he set a middle course. Some later Presidents have made the office of President stronger, some weaker, but all have been influenced by the course Washington set.

Washington was not a brilliant man. Jefferson said Washington's mind "was slow in operation...but sure in conclusion." He never acted "until every circumstance, every consideration was maturely weighed...but when once decided upon, going through with his purpose whatever obstacles opposed."

Like Washington, John Adams did not believe in political parties. He thought of the president as a "patriot king" and not as the leader of one party. But political parties had already been formed, and Adams soon found himself in trouble. The Federalist party, led by Alexander Hamilton, believed in government by a small group of rich and powerful men. The Republican party (which later changed its name to the Democratic party), led by Thomas Jefferson, believed in government by the mass of people. Adams stood somewhere in the middle, but he had been elected by the Federalists.

The Federalists wanted war with France. Against the wishes of Hamilton and his own Cabinet, Adams sent more men to France to talk peace. This time the French government was willing to meet with them, and a war that might have destroyed the young nation was avoided. In saving his country from war, Adams had angered the leaders of the Federalist party. In the election of 1801, they turned against him and he was defeated. He went back to his home in Massachusetts and died there on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Adams was a true patriot as well as a brave and stubborn man ("he's obnoxious and disliked, did you know that?" 1776). Before his death he asked that the words on his tomb read: "Here lies John Adams, who took upon himself the responsibility of the peace with France in the year 1800."

Alexander Hamilton, Washington's secretary of the Treasury, loved his country as much as Thomas Jefferson did, but he did not agree with Jefferson's ideas of what made a good government. Hamilton believed that the English system, headed by a king or at least a lifetime President, would be best. Each man honestly believed he was right; Jefferson believed that Hamilton's ideas would turn them into a dictatorship, and Hamilton thought Jefferson's ideas would end in mob rule. Jefferson did not, at first, intend to form a political party, but he soon became the leader of the men who agreed with him. They began to be called Republicans (years later the Republicans began to call themselves Democrats). The men who agreed with Hamilton became known as Federalists. Nobody planned it, but this was the beginning of the party system in the United States.

President Washington agreed more often with Hamilton than with Jefferson. At the end of Washington's first term, Jefferson resigned and went back to Virginia. When Washington refused to serve a third term, John Adams was elected President and Thomas Jefferson was elected Vice President. Adams belonged to the Federalist party, Jefferson to the Republican party. The mix-up happened because the men who wrote the Constitution had not thought about political parties. They planned for the man who got the most votes to be President and for the man who got the second most votes to be Vice President. Later the Constitution would be changed so that the President and Vice President would always belong to the same party.

Adams served only one term, then Jefferson was elected President. Jefferson might have been elected a third time too if he had wished. However, he was always afraid that if a President served for too long he might be tempted to become a dictator. He did not believe that any man should be President for more than two terms. Jefferson died on the same day as Adams, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence, which he himself had written, was signed. Jefferson wrote the words to go on his gravestone: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia."

During the Revolution, James Madison served in the Continental Congress. After the war was over, he was one of the first men to recognize the great problems facing the new country. At this time, the nation had no real central government. Each state considered itself more or less  independent. Madison knew that if the country was to get along, it must have a central government with more power. He and other leaders urged that a convention be called to form such a government.

This convention met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. Madison was one of the members and prime movers. The plan settled on became the Constitution of the United States. With some changes it is the same plan by which we are governed today. Madison is often called the father of the Constitution. When the new government was formed, Madison was elected to the House of Representatives. There he led the fight to add the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These are known today as the Bill of Rights.

Although he had a great mind, Madison was not a great leader of men. The War Hawks were using the British attacks on American ships as an excuse to capture Canada from England and Florida from Spain, an ally of England. In 1812 they talked Madison into asking Congress to declare war on England. This was called the War of 1812. However, Madison had begun peace talks with the English almost as soon as he began the war, and in 1815 a peace treaty was signed in Europe. The peace treaty settled none of the problems that had caused the war, but because of Andrew Jackson's military victory over the British at New Orleans before news of the treaty reached the front, most Americans felt they had won the war.

The time of James Monroe's presidency came to be known as the "era of good feeling." Even though the War of 1812 was over, both the United States and Great Britain still had warships on the Great Lakes. There was always a chance that the fighting might start again. Monroe suggested that each country limit its warships on the lakes to a few very small ones. England agreed. That set up a spirit of cooperation and peaceful negotiation that still exists among Britain, the United States, and Canada today.

In 1829, Monroe was elected to a second term. He got every vote in the electoral college except one. The one man who voted against him said he did not think anybody but Washington should ever get all the votes. Monroe declared that the United States didn't want any European country meddling in American affairs and that no new colonies were to be started in North or South America. This became known as the Monroe Doctrine and has been a basic doctrine of the United States ever since.