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Defending the Constitution
The President Is Not a King
Anti-Federalist arguments that the President and the Federal courts also
enjoyed excessive amounts of power under the proposed Constitution
were also rebutted by Hamilton, principally in Federalist 69 and Federalist
78. Particularly weak was the charge that the President had been endowed with all of the rights and prerogatives of an English monarch. Astutely noting that the powers of the Chief Executive did not differ remarkably from those already being exercised by many State governors,
Hamilton spelled out in exhaustive detail the differences between the
President and the King of Great Britain: the President was elected by the
people for four years, whereas the King is a perpetual hereditary prince;
the President can be impeached and removed from office, whereas the person of the King is ‘‘sacred and inviolable’’; the President has a qualified
veto, whereas that of the King is absolute; the President is commander-inchief of the armed forces, whereas the King not only raises and commands
the military but may also declare war on his own authority; the President
shares the treaty-making and appointment power with the legislature,
whereas the King alone exercises these powers. These, and countless
other differences, distinguished the two offices. ‘‘What answer,’’ asked
Hamilton, ‘‘shall we give to those who would persuade us that things so
unlike resemble each other? The same that ought to be given to those
who tell us, that a government, the whole power of which would be in
the hands of the elective and periodical servants of the people, is an aristocracy, a monarchy, and a despotism.’’
The Judiciary Is the Least Dangerous Branch
On the question of Federal judicial power, however, Hamilton dismissed
many of the Anti-Federalist objections out of hand, and never really came
to grips with the issue. In Federalist 78, he argued persuasively for the principle of judicial independence, but the thought that Federal judges might
usurp the powers of the State courts received only passing notice. The
possibility that Federal judges might also encroach upon the powers of
Congress or the President seemed equally remote. Historically, courts of