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I’ve never been comfortable with the “Washington turned down the throne” narrative. I just don’t see the Founders going for anything resembling what we think of as a monarchy. Maybe a lifetime presidency with the possibility of removal. I’ve just never dug into it. Has anyone here studied it?Report
Hamilton proposed a President elected for life. One can easily imagine how that could have worked out. I think the Saxon kings were appointed by the Witan, but the king used his powers, including of appointment, to gain favor for his heir. If Washington was President-for-Life one can imagine a situation in which a faction backs Washington’s heir based upon name recognition and inherited reputation, and a few such appointments later, the Presidency is a de facto inherited monarchy with certain unique checks.
The other scenario would be in Washington’s third national act as leader of the New Army. The first act was as Commander in Chief who very publicly resigned his commission before the Continental Congress. The second act was as President of the U.S., from which he departed after two terms. But when the international fallout from the French Revolution reached the U.S., Washington accepted titular command of the New Army, which Hamilton was to organize. The exact purpose of this army is unknown beyond repelling a theoretical French invasion, though Henry Adams believed it was being raised for internal purposes as well. Had France sought to destabilize the U.S. internally during the Quasi-War or sought to raise a rebellion against Adams, a scenario could enfold where the New Army was triggered into action to fight enemies both foreign and domestic. (Notably, the political party being created by Jefferson-Madison at this time was no less a violation of norms of republican virtue than monarchy) Washington clearly saw this as a crisis, if called to save his country a third time would he ever return home? He died in December of 1799, so this scenario seems like it runs out of time and opportunity pretty quickly. But it could cause reformation of the Constitutional system in worst case scenarios.Report
George Washington was compared to Cincinnatus on many occasions so it’s doubtful Washington would have accepted (though one suspects others from the era, like Adams or Jefferson or maybe even Hamilton might have; Burr definitely would have but he wasn’t going to have got the offer before one of them; Franklin would surely have laughed at the offer and thanked the Monarchial Selection Committee* on behalf of his son); the video goes to some pains early on to point out that it’s just speculative genealogy.
Inherited prominence, either with or without meaningful amounts of political power, doesn’t strike me as a great idea. That which makes admirable people admirable is almost never heritable and frequently effed up by the formative experiences of access to wealth, fame, and power their descendants get to enjoy.
* On reflection, we ought to concoct an acronym for “WITAN” that would substitute for Monarchial Selection Committee.Report
Working-group for Inherited Title and Authority Nominations.Report
I have some affection for the Venetian system. A king for life – but that life gets shortened if you try to establish a dynasty. Also, your only responsibilities are treaties and keeping the navy strong. I don’t know what our Founders thought of Venice.Report
All I know of Madison’s thoughts was that he generally believed the contemporary republican governments did not confront the same scale of tasks that the Framers did, with so large and diverse a population and geography, unlike Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Venice.
But we’ve got this from Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia, which may be summed up as “Insufficient checks and balances”:
Report
Wow, thanks.Report
The electoral college is based on the Holy Roman Empire’s, arguing that an American monarch would have been elected for life, with a strong bias for dynastic succession.Report