The Grand Convention - An Elective King

On June 1st, 1787, the Constitutional Convention reached the resolution nobody had wanted to write: a national executive. James Wilson moved that it consist of a single person — and the room went silent, long enough that 81-year-old Franklin had to coax the delegates into speaking. The reason for the silence sat on the dais: every man present was measuring an office for General Washington, in his presence, weighing out loud how much power one man could be trusted with while the man himself said nothing. This is the story of the 4 days that invented the presidency: Randolph calling a single executive “the foetus of monarchy” and Wilson answering that unity was the best safeguard against tyranny; Franklin proposing the office serve without pay, and pointing at the chair — “a Patriot whom I will not now offend by any other praise”; Dickinson praising limited monarchy as the best government on earth and conceding America could never have it; Hamilton and Wilson demanding an absolute veto and losing 10 states to none; and Franklin’s warning that echoes down every administration since: the first man at the helm will be a good one. Nobody knows what sort may come afterwards. Send us Fan Mail