In Federalist #69, Hamilton takes on "The Real Character of the Executive". Here he says "The president is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy…and his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces…while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war…" What a difference a few years can make. From Lincoln's Civil War suspension of habeas corpus; to Roosevelt's end run that sent direct weaponry assistance to Great Britain before America's official entry into World II; to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a few other lesser undeclared skirmishes, I do wonder how Hamilton would view the contemporary "constraints" on executive war powers. From "nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces", the executive war powers have advanced just a bit. Levinson, Ackerman, and others do comment and expand on this and I do believe it should be cause for great public concern.
Harold Nash:
ReplyDeleteIn Federalist #69, Hamilton takes on "The Real Character of the Executive". Here he says "The president is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy…and his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces…while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war…" What a difference a few years can make. From Lincoln's Civil War suspension of habeas corpus; to Roosevelt's end run that sent direct weaponry assistance to Great Britain before America's official entry into World II; to Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a few other lesser undeclared skirmishes, I do wonder how Hamilton would view the contemporary "constraints" on executive war powers. From "nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces", the executive war powers have advanced just a bit. Levinson, Ackerman, and others do comment and expand on this and I do believe it should be cause for great public concern.