Observations of the first Executive Branch
DIRECTIONS: Read and Mark the Following:
From “The Presidency: ‘A Path As Clear as a Ray of Light’”
1. Washington’s present power to shape a stable government around him depends a great deal on exactly the kind of public adulation he received while making his way from Mount Vernon to New York. But Washington distrusts it (public adulation), and fears its abuse. . . . The flesh-and-blood President whom New Yorkers have intermittently seen this summer is indeed anything but a demigod. At 57, grown partly deaf and almost toothless in the service of his country, he remains . . . a remote and somewhat perplexing figure. In an age of ambition, Washington genuinely seems to dread power, yet power again and again has been thrust upon him, almost as if Providence desired it. Even Washington’s enemies concede his greatness; even his friends are sometimes at a loss to explain exactly what makes him great.
2. Incorruptible virtue, an unmatched sense of justice, a sound administrator’s care for detail, an almost Roman stoicism when it comes to duty—all these are variously granted to him. . . . How will he do, some critics wonder, commanding the ambitions of men as diverse as Hamilton and Jefferson, whose intellect and training . . . are far superior to his own? Characteristically, the President has private misgivings about his qualifications for maintaining such a coalition of opposing forces. “My movements to the chair of government,” he wrote Henry Knox this spring, “will . . . not be unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution. . . I face an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclinations which is necessary to manage the helm.”
3. What concerns Washington most is that there are no precedents for the authority he exerts or the way he is to act. This uncharted area extends from matters of national policy to the smallest detail of presidential protocol. The issue of ceremony has been particularly troublesome. Before the new President was even inaugurated, for example, Congress split heatedly on how he should be addressed. To Washington’s relief, the House voted down any fancy title. Even the presidential bow has come under criticism. Some observers found it far too stiff and monarchical for a republican Chief of State. Washington was hurt. The stiffness of his bow, he told a friend, should be ascribed to the effects of age, or to the unskillfulness of his teacher, rather than to pride of office, which, he says, has no charms for him.
from “The Vice Presidency: A Case of ‘the Fidgets’”
4. Perhaps the most discomfited man in the United States is Vice President John Adams. The portly envoy who for ten years has impressed kings and foreign ministers with his plain talk and studiedly plain air now sits in grandeur under the crimson canopy of the Senate chamber—and fumes. True, he is president of the Senate. He presides, but he is not entitled to vote, except in case of a tie. He rules on points of order from the chair but is not authorized to join in the debates (though he does often break in). As he puts it, “My country in its wisdom has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived . It is, to be sure, a punishment to hear other men talk five hours every day and not be at liberty to talk at all myself, especially as more than half I hear appears to me very young, inconsiderate, and inexperienced.”
5. Bostonian Adams well knows that the vice presidency was a kind of afterthought of the Constitution’s makers. They original system called for the voting of two candidates for president, but the framers of the Constitution feared that the 13 states’ electors might vote for 13 different local heroes for President, so they decreed that each elector must vote for two candidates from two different states. Nobody ever doubted the first winner would be Washington, but that left the Vice President a mere straw man, representing little, and with nothing much to do.
6. Adams has always had what he calls “the fidgets,” and he now is suffering increasingly from a palsy that gives a tremor to his writing hand. He is inclined to feel old, although not yet 54, and out of action. It is a task made the more difficult by the meager salary Congress has voted Adams—5,000 dollars a year, compared with the 25,000 dollars voted for the President. Adams’ position in the Senate is not entirely without influence, for sometimes the votes end in a tie, as in last July’s debate on the President’s right to dismiss his own appointees. Then Adams has a chance to make his intensely personal views count—usually, as in that case, in favor of strong government. At other times, he can only accept the advice he recently gave to some fellow Yankees during the tariff debate. Said he: “They must grin (as is commonly said) and bear it.”
Unit 4 Literacy Activity; Executive Branch 1st Members-Questions
DIRECTIONS:
Write your name, date, and class period across the top. Write number and a complete sentence responses to each of the questions that follow:
1. What does Washington need to create a stable government?
2. What is a “demigod”?
3. What physical problems does Washington have?
4. What is the relationship of power to Washington?
5. What are the skills that Washington brings to the office?
6. What difficulty do Washington’s critics say he will face?
7. What problems does Washington believe he will face?
8. What is the area of greatest concern to Washington?
9. How are the problems that Washington is to face found even in the title of his office?
10. Why is Adams to “fume”?
11. What is Adams to do as President of the Senate?
12. How does Adams feel about being President of the Senate?
13. Why did the original system call for the voting of two people for president?
14. What physical problems does Adams have?
15. Why would the write describe the Vice President as a “straw-man”?
16. How does money tend to make the vice president more inferior?
17. What influence the vice president have?
18. How is Washington portrayed as a man of contradictions, give three examples.
Unit 4 Literacy Activity; Executive Branch 1st Members-Summary
DIRECTIONS:
Write your name, date, and class period across the top. Write a summary of the readings using all of the
Word-Sifts below.
Part 1; from “The Presidency: ‘A Path As Clear as a Ray of Light”
administrator adulation age ambition ascribed bow care chair charm come concede critic criticism detail distrust diverse enemy exactly execution fancy friend going granted great issue justice misgiving national necessary new place power precedent present president presidential public remote somewhat summer superior unlike unmatched vernon washington washingtons way yorkers
Part 2; from the “The Vice Presidency: A Case of ‘the Fidgets”
adams authority bow candidate case chair come congress constitution contrived countusually debate detail different dollar elector granted grin hear house it” man office own particularly personal plain point presidency president presidential said senate state stiff sure talk tie training true two vice vote voted washington way year
Unit 4 Literacy Activity; 1st Executive Branch; SOAPs Analysis
DIRECTIONS: Write your name, date, and class period across the top. Complete the SOAPS analysis responding in complete sentence responses.
Subject
What is the general topic?
What are three things the author said that you think are important?
Occasion
Identify or describe the person who wrote this document and why they wrote it.
What type of document is it?
Audience
Who was the intended audience? When was the document created or circulated?
Purpose
Why do you think this document was created? What specific evidence in the document helps you know why it was created?
What does the document convey about life at the time it was created?
What questions does the document raise?
Speaker
Think about the who the writer may be occupation, gender, religion, nationality, or class of the writer
Who created the document? How do you know?
What position or title the writer hold? Is this person an insider or an outsider? How do you know?
Whose voice is not represented in the document? Why do you think that voice was left out?