At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Founders shaped an executive branch, represented by the president, who would work and balance power with the legislative and judicial branches in the newly-created system of republican government. They envisioned an independent president who would moderate the popular will and elevate the public view by standing apart from partisan passions—a nonpartisan leader. The Founders, however, did not predict the rise of political parties, which greatly changed the role of the president in the constitutional system of representation. Because of the development of parties, the early presidents had to reconstruct the presidency to manage or incorporate the new institution into the constitutional government. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson all faced the challenge of dealing with the rise of parties, which is not accounted for in the Constitution and each president confronted the problem differently: George Washington attempted to maintain the nonpartisanship envisioned by the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson became a party leader as president reluctantly, and Andrew Jackson reveled in integrating the two-party system in the White House. With the passing of time, the representational role of the president evolved from the Founders’ original conception of the presidency.
Unlike the expectation for modern-day presidents to be overtly partisan, the Founders expected the head of the executive branch to be a disinterested republican gentleman who would unite the different factions of the country. As James Ceaser has described, the Founders created a president whom they hoped would embody
“nonpartisan” statesmanship. Under this form of leadership, the elevation of individuals to office should be the result of their having achieved a widespread reputation based on distinguished service to the state. The winner in such a process, no matter what his margin of victory, can in a sense legitimately assert the claim to be president of all the people, since his election would not divide the populace into strongly antagonistic parts.[1]
James Wilson, who attended the Constitutional Convention as a Pennsylvanian delegate, expressed Founders’ ideal of the disinterested role of the president at the Pennsylvania ratifying convention: “[The president] will be…THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE; being elected by the different parts of the United States, he will consider himself as not particularly interested for any one of them, but will watch over the whole with paternal care affection.”[2] The Founders hoped that the role of the president would be to look out for the public good while balancing the powers of government.
The Founders’ ideal president was embodied in the presidency of George Washington, who made an effort to maintain disinterested and nonpartisan. To uphold the vision of the Founders, Washington asked Congress, in his first inaugural address, to look beyond parties and interests in considering national policy:
I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.[3]
Washington did not look fondly upon political parties and as the Federalist party, led by Alexander Hamilton, and Democratic-Republican party, headed by Thomas Jefferson began to emerge in his administration, he did not support either of them. Washington’s careful treatment of the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793, which established that the United States would not give aid or weapons to the warring countries of Britain and France, was a sign of attempt to placate both parties. Following the advice of Hamilton, Washington announced the Neutrality Proclamation; however, he attempted to appease Jefferson by receiving a representative from the new Republic of France[4], an action that Hamilton had rejected.[5] The political divide between Hamilton and Jefferson had been caused by their different views on the role of the government, especially the executive. Jefferson’s presidency allowed him to redefine the role of the executive, particularly on how to integrate newly formed political parties into the system of government.
The presidency of Jefferson was marked by an ambivalent increase in partisanship and a greater incorporation of parties in government. Instead of following Washington’s example of disinterestedness and serving as an umpire to diverse factions and parties, Jefferson “assumed the mantle of party leader in an effort to direct the separate branches of American government.”[6] Jefferson’s first inaugural address hinted at his reinterpretation of the role of the president as a party leader; in his address, he proposed clearly Democratic-Republican policies such as “the support of the State governments in all their rights” and “encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid.” Despite his establishment of a party platform in his inaugural address, Jefferson still called for unity and nonpartisanship: “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans, we are all federalists.”[7] Even though Jefferson was the first president acting as party leader, he did not intend for presidents in the future to do so; he hoped that as party leader, he would be able to destroy the party system by uniting the country under one party. Ceaser expressed the Jefferson’s ambivalence of political parties and his role as party leader: Jefferson “saw the partisan struggle in terms of winning power with a view of returning the regime to nonpartisan competition.”[8] The ambivalence on political parties and hope to bring the country back to nonpartisanship present during Jefferson’s presidency were lacking in Andrew Jackson’s administration.
President Jackson represented the integration of political parties in the executive. Through the development of the spoils system and the plan of Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s sidekick, for a two-party system, Jackson was able to establish the institution of parties into his presidency. Instrumental to the two-party system was the spoils system, which allowed Jackson to reward faithful party members. In his first address to Congress, he attempted to convince Congress that limiting public office appointments to hour years would increase efficiency and integrity.[9] Jackson’s use of the system of rotation in public office was party-oriented, as Milkis and Nelson notes: “Jackson…removed or sanctioned the removal of thousands of subordinates for political reasons…. In theory, the ‘spoils system’ expanded the powers of the executive enormously. The president was now in a position…to enforce conformity to administration policies within the executive branch.”[10] Even more important to the partisan leadership of Jackson was Van Buren’s methodical plan to institute a two-party system in American government. To perpetuate the party system, Van Buren realized that a strong party leader was needed to establish consensus within the party. Ceaser describes the type of party leadership in a president that Van Buren envisioned:
Van Buren’s ideal leader can be described as a broker or skilled politician, a kind of leader that is very different from both the elevated statesman envisioned by the Founders and the principled partisan represented by Jefferson…. By admitting partisanship in the form of a coalitional party into the selection process, it could be said the presidency was being pulled down from its pedestal of independence above the contending factions…. Van Buren himself seemed to have acknowledged that a kind of lowering of the tone of presidential leadership was about to take place.”[11]
Jackson embodied more of the ideal of Van Buren’s presidential partisan leader than the disinterested republican president of the Founders. Following Van Buren’s ideal of an executive party leader and reinforcing the strength of parties through practices such as the spoils system, Jackson no longer represented the disinterested president who moderated conflicting factions—the president was now leading a party and instituting his partisan interests in government.
Through the presidencies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, the role of the president in the constitutional system of representation altered dramatically. The development of political parties, which the Founders had not anticipated, required presidents to incorporate the newly formed institution into the government. George Washington embodied the Founders’ vision of a disinterested, nonpartisan leader; however, presidents following Washington, such as Jefferson and Jackson, were forced to acknowledge the existence of parties and mold a place for the executive branch in the parties. Jefferson, with reluctance, constructed the president as temporary party leader while Jackson integrated the party system in the executive branch and leadership. With the rise of political parties, Jefferson and Jackson redefined the role of the president as a party leader that more closely resembles the modern-day presidency.
Works Cited
Ceaser, James W. Presidential Selection: Theory and Development. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1979.
Ellis, Richard J., ed. Founding of the American Presidency. New York: Rowman and Littlefield
Press, 1999.
Milkis, Sidney M. and Michael Nelson. The American Presidency: Origins and Development
1776-1998. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999.
Nelson, Michael, ed. The Evolving Presidency. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly,
1999.
A Partisan Patriot King?
The Development of the President as Party Leader, 1789-1836
Chu Hwang
Professor Milkis
GFAP 331
7 March 2002
1
[1] James Ceaser, Presidential Selection: Theory and Development (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979), 58.
[2] Speech by James Wilson at the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention [1 December 1787], in Founding of the American Presidency ed. Richard J. Ellis (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999), 149.
[3] First Inaugural Address by George Washington given in New York [30 April 1789] in The Evolving Presidency ed. Michael Nelson (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999), 33.
[4] By receiving the representative from France, the president’s dominant role in foreign affairs was asserted, for which Hamilton and the Federalists argued.
[5] Sidney Milkis and Michael Nelson, The American Presidency: Origins and Development 1776-1998 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999), 77-8.
[6] Ibid., 99.
[7] First Inaugural Address by Thomas Jefferson given in Washington, DC [4 March 1801] in The Evolving Presidency ed. Michael Nelson (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999), 47-9.
[8] Ceaser, 92.
[9] First Message to Congress by Andrew Jackson given in Washington, DC [8 December 1829] in The Evolving Presidency ed. Michael Nelson (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999), 63.
[10] Milkis and Nelson, 127.
[11] Ceaser, 158.