Question

George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, how each shaped or enlarged the Presidency for themselves and their successors. Have these expansions been lasting or not? What implications they have for 2020 and beyond?

Answer 1

The President of the Unite States is the most powerful political figure in America, and throughout history,Presidents have shaped the very fabric of the nation. Presidents have led U.S through global conflict,civil war,economic crises and cultural revolutions.

Geoge Washington

Among George Washington's critics are thosewho wonder how the nation might have developed had he sided with Jefferson in the partisan debates that swirled all around him as President. By identifying himself with Hamilton, he actually furthered the partisanship , he so vigorously denounced in his farewell speech to the nation. In the eyes of those historians who doubt his greatness, this is Washinton's most significant failure as President.

He has also been criticised, along with other members of the founding generation, for his ownership of slaves. At one point, he expressed the sincere desire to see "a plan adopted for the abolition" of slavery, but he backed away from initiating such aplan by looking to legislative authority for its conception and execution. While he provided generously for his lifetime. Nevertheless. a year before his death he remarked to an acquaintance, "I can foresee that nithing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our nation".

Creating the Presidency

Except for these caveats, it is the substantial consensus among historians that Washington's tenure in office set the nation on a path that has endured now for over 200 years, longer than any other republic in history. He established precedents that would last for generations and did more to flesh out the skeleton of thepresidential office than anyone could have expected or predicted. As one scholar has said, he "invented tradition as he went along". His actions, more than those of any other Founding Father, became a part of the "unwritten Constitution.

"Washington's reliance on department heads for advice,similar to his war council during the Revolution, set a precedent for including the cabinet as part of the President's office. Moreover,because Congress did not challenge his appointments or his removal of appointees,principally out of his respect for him,the tradition was planted to allow the President to choose his or her own cabinet. By his actions and words, Washington also set the standard for two presidential terms, a practice that lasted for two presidential terms, a practice that lasted until 1940. When Jay resigned as Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Washinton selected his sucessor from outside the bench,disregarding seniority and thus aloowing future Presidents to draw from a diverse pool of talent beyond the court's aging incumbents.

When the House of Representatives sought records related to negotiations surrounding the Jay Treaty of 1795. Washington refused to deliver all the documents. In doing so , he set the precedent for invoking what became known as executive privilege. In leading federal troops against the Whiskey Rebellion,Washington established the principle that federal law is the supreme law of the land, and demonstrated that the federal government is empowered to levy and collect taxes.

Although he sponsered and supported legislative proposals submitted to congress for enactment, he carefully avoided trying to dictate or unduly influence the judicial and legislative branches of the government. In not vetoing bills with which he disagreed unless there were constitutional questions,he set a precedent of executive restraints that would be followed by the next five Presidents. Moreover, by keeping Vice President Adams at arm's length-not even inviting him to attend cabinet meetings-Washinton set the tradition by which the Vice President's role is largely ceremonial.

Also,although washington hated partisanship and political parties, he tolerated dissent,vicious attacks on his reputation and name, and a divise press-all in the interest of freedom. There is little reason to suggest that Washington, unlike so many of his sucessors, ever sought to use his office for personal empowerment or gain. Neither did he shelter his friends for the sake of their friendships when conflicts of interest arose.

Perhaps most importantly, Washington's presidential restraint,solemnity, judiciousness,and nonpartisan stance created an image of presidential greatness,or dignity, that dominates the office even today. He was the man who could have been a king but refused a crown and saves a republic.

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson left a permanent imprint upon American politics and the presidency. Within eight years, he melded the amorphous coalition of personal followers who had elected him ino the country's most durable and sucessful political party, an electoral machine whose organisation and discipline would serve as a model for all others. At the same time,his controversial conduct in office galvanised opponents to organise the Whig party. The Democratic party was a Jackson's child;the national two-party system was his legacy.

Jackson's drive for party organisation was spurred by his own difficulties with Congress. Unlike other famously strong Peesidents, Jackson defined himself not by enacting a legislatuve program but by thwarting one. In eight years,Congress passed only one major-law, the Indian Removal Act of 1830,at his behest.During this time Jackson vetoed twelve bills, more than hs six predecesoors combined. One of these was the first "pocket veto" in Americsn history. The Maysville Road and Bank vetoes stood as enduring statements of his political philosophy.

Jackson strengthened himself against Congress by forging direct links with the voters. his official messages, though delivered to Congress,spoke in plain and powerful language to the people at large. Reversing tradition of executive deference to legislative supremacy,Jackson bodly cast himslef as the people's tribune, their sole defender against special interests and their minions in congress. In other ways,too,Jackson expanded the scope of presidential authority. He dominated his cabinet,forcing out members who would not execute his commands. In two terms he went through four secretaries of state and five secretaries of the treasury. Holding his official subordinates at arm's length,Jackson devised and implemented his policies through a private coterie of advisers and publicists known as the "kitchen cabinet". His bold initiatives and domineering style caused opponents to call him Kind Andrew, and to take the name Whigs to signify their opposition to executive tyranny.

Jackson was no deep thinker, but his matured policy positions did bespeak a coherent political philosophy. Like Jefferson,he believed republican government should be simple,frugal and accessible. He cherished the extinction of the national debt during his administration as a personal truimph. Believing that social cleavages and inequities were fostered rather than ameliorated by governmental intervention, he embraced laissez-faire as the policy most conductive to economic equality and polictical liberty.

Jackson was both a fiery patriot and a strident partisan. Regarding the national union as indivisible and sucession while reproving policies like the tariff which fostered sectional divisiveness. his aggressive Indian removal policy and his espousal of cheaper western land prices reflected his nationalism's grounding in the southwestern frontier. Jackson's powerful personality played an instrumental role in his presidency. He indulged in violent hatreds, and the extent to which his political positions reflected mere personal animus is still debated.Jackson demonised many of those who crossed him, including John C Calhoun, Henry Clay, Bank of the United States President Nicholas Biddle, and Cherokee Indian chief John Ross. Jackson's own character polarisd contemporaries amd continues to divide historians. Some praise his strenth and audacity;others see him as vengful and self-obsessed. To admirers he stands as a shining symbol of Amercian accomplishment, the ultimate individualist and democrat. To detractirs he appears as inincipient tyrant, the closest we hve yet come to an American Caesar.

Abraham Lincoln

In 1982, forty-nine historians and poltical scientists were asked by the Chicago Tribune to rate all the Presidents through Jimmy Carter in five categories : leadership qualities skills, appointments/integrity. At the top of the list stood Abraham Lincoln. He was followed by Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson,Woodrow Wilson, and Harry Truman. None of these other Presidents exceeded Lincoln in any category according to the rate scale. Roosevelt fell into second place because he did not measure up to Linclon in character. Washington,close behind,rabked third because of his lesser political skills. It is the general opinion pf pollsters,moreover, that the average American would probably put Lincoln at the top as well. In other words, the judgement of historians and the public tell us that Abrham Lincoln was the public tells us that Abraham Lincoln was the nation's greatest President by every measure applied.

Interestingly,had the average union citizen been asked the same question in the spring of 1863, there can be no doubt but that Lincoln would have fared poorly Not much more could have been said for him even a year later, when Lincoln thought that he would lose his bid for reelection. It would take Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and his own death a week later to propel Lincoln into that pantheon of presidential greatness.

And Lincoln's canonisation began almost immediately. Within days of his death, his life was being compared to Jesus christ. Lincoln was portrayed to a worshipping public as a self-made man, the liberator of the slaves, and the saviour of the Union who had given his life so that others could be free. President Lincoln became Father Abraham, a near mytholigical hero,"lawgiver" to African Americans, and a "Masterpiece of God" sent to save the Unions. His humor was presented as an example of his humanity;his numerous pardons demonstarted his "great soul"; and his lonely journey as the leader of a "blundering and sinful" people.

Historians, mindful of Lincolns's mythic place in American popular culture, accord him similar praise for what he accomplished and for how he did it. Because he was committed to preserving the Union and thus vindicating democracy mo matter what the consequences to himself, the Union was indeed saved. Because he understood that ending slavery required patience,careful timing,shrewd calculations, and an iron resolve,slavery was indeed killed. Lincoln managed in the process of saving the Union and killing slavery to degine the creation of a more perfect union in terms of liberty and economic equality that rallied the citizenry behind him. Because he understood that victory in both great causes depended leadership as well as the exercise of politically acceptable means, he left as his legacy u United States that was both whole and free

As the most active President in history, Lincoln transforned the President's role as commander in chief and as chief executive into apowerful new position,making the President supreme over both congress and the courts. His activism began almost immediately with Fort Sumter when he called out state militias,expanded the army and navy,spent $2 million without congressional appropriation,blockaded southern ports, closed post offices to treasonable correspondences, suspended the writ pf habeas corpus in several locations.ordered the arrest and military detention of suspended traitors and issued the Emancipation Proclanation on New Year's day of 1863.

Lincoln's legacy of executive authoruty did noy last beyong his death, and iver the next forty years both congress and the courts overshadowed the White House in power and influence. Sitll the most lasting accomlishments attributed to Lincoln are the preservation of the union, the vindication of democracy,and the death of slavery, all accomplished by the ways in which he handled the crises that most certainly would have ended differently with a lesser man in office. His great achivement,historians tell us was his ability to energise and mobilise the nation by appealing to its best ideals while acting "with malice towards none" in the pursuit of a more perfect, more just, and more enduring Union. No president in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no President ever accomplished as much.