Ratification Debates

Abstract

This chapter begins with the executive branch that attracted less attention than other issues and the controversy that had little to do with the details of presidential authority. It points out that there wasn't much discussion about what the various provisions bearing on executive power meant as participants focused on whether those powers were benign or dangerous. It also refers to the speakers who catalogued the powers of the executive that simply quoted or paraphrased the language of Article II, without any serious attempts at exposition. The chapter talks about Herbert Storing, the leading scholar of Anti-Federalist thought who noted that some Anti-Federalists defended the presidency and thought the office should have been made stronger as an antidote to the aristocratic Senate. It details five state-ratifying conventions that proposed more than fifty amendments related to the powers of the presidency, such as barring pardons in treason cases.