one of the greatest myths about
Washington that needs to be dispelled is
that he was somehow superhuman we have
chosen to see George Washington through
the lens of a mythic person and we've
done that because he was our first
president but for historians who know
his life we know that he was a man like
anybody else
a man with doubt a man who was uncertain
that this nation would ever really form
and work a man who did not know if he
was really ready to be President of the
United States when he is assuming the
presidency he's saying I don't know if I
can do this
I don't know if I could do this this was
a tiny country and a fledgling country
and nobody knew that this was going to
work he more than any other single
person had created the United States and
so he had a big investment in seeing
that the United States would succeed
Washington understood that if he failed
the country would fail it was that
simple
but exactly what this presidency
consisted of was quite unclear at the
time Washington took his oath of office
if you read article 2 of the
Constitution on the powers of the
presidency you would not be able to tell
what in heaven's name the president can
and cannot do nobody know how to define
the presidency what did it mean did you
want to be called your excellency your
eminence
would you like to effect a royal mean
there was no such thing as a president
if a king entered a room people who knew
that they should stand what do you do
when a president enters a room it seems
like he probably has some degree of
power on foreign policy but ever
domestic policy is not clear at all
Washington was part of an important
balancing act should the legislature be
dominant what would be the role of the
judiciary it won't be the role of the
states I think a dramatic example of the
fact that this was a new government and
there was no precedent is Washington's
copy of the Constitution he's given this
book and it's a beautifully bound book
and it also has in it a copy of the
Constitution in the beginning of and
when George Washington is preparing for
the first State of the Union address
it's January 1793 sits down and he
rereads the Constitution in that book
and he marks it up in the margins
basically what he does is he reads
through and every time the presidency is
involved he writes in the margin
president
so article 1 which is all about the
legislative branch and the powers of
Congress where they're mixed with the
executive branch to the veto power this
treaty making power George Washington
makes these little brackets in his fine
surveyors hand and writes president this
is his job
what is he responsible for he doesn't
know and he's marking it down on a piece
of paper you can see him wrestling with
the job on paper in a sense he's using
this pencil just like we would use a
highlighter
article two all about the executive
branch it starts out the executive power
shall be vested in the President of the
United States
he writes right next to that president
yeah this is good this article is all
about him
Constitution wasn't a detailed blueprint
and it was going to take shape as
Congress developed its powers as the
executive the president developed his
powers he's already been president for
ten months he was at the Constitutional
Convention he knows what's in the
Constitution but he's so careful that is
binding himself to the rule of law to
the Constitution to the limits and
responsibilities of that office the
Constitution sets up broad structures
Washington has the responsibility to
fill it
he's so conscious of the power of being
a president without precedent and that
he's setting a model that others will
follow
Washington's not thinking about the next
year or the next decade he's thinking
about what the United States could
become over the next century
Washington's presidency shapes the
office the precedent set during his
presidency are more important than any
language in the Constitution itself
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