No. 69 — The Real Character of the Executive (Hamilton)

Hamilton works through the presidential powers systematically. Duration: the President serves four years, subject to re-election or removal by impeachment; the British king holds office for life, and hereditary succession means the kingdom never elects its chief executive at all. Accountability: the President can be impeached by the House, tried by the Senate, and if convicted removed from office and made subject to ordinary criminal prosecution; the king's person is constitutionally sacred and inviolable. Veto power: the President may return bills for reconsideration, but a two-thirds majority of both houses overrides him; the British king's veto has been absolute since the Glorious Revolution, and in theory is still so.

The comparison continues into military and treaty powers. The President is commander-in-chief but may not declare war — that power belongs to Congress — and commands the militia only when it is called into actual federal service; the British king exercises supreme command over all military forces without any such limitation. The President makes treaties with Senate consent by two-thirds; the king makes treaties by royal prerogative alone, subject only to parliamentary appropriation of funds. The President nominates officers who must be confirmed by the Senate; the king appoints without any legislative check.

Hamilton then turns the comparison the other way. The New York governor, whom Anti-Federalists treat as an uncontroversially republican officer, has powers in several respects similar to or greater than the proposed President's — he is elected for three years (versus four), can be re-elected without limit, nominates officers, and exercises executive veto (shared with a council). The presidency is more constrained than the governor of New York in some respects. The Anti-Federalists who accept New York's governor without complaint and condemn the proposed President as a tyrant-in-waiting have not been reading the texts they claim to cite.