Inst this would have been host however the duties he was about to step into defined at that moment when he was sworn in . Guest they were defined at all. The present did see brandnew institution. There had not been anything like it certainly in america, were in the world. Of an a new experiment elected magistrate that at one point would be the head of state like a king, but at the same time also be the chief executioner of the law. The chief executive in this case. The chief policymaker. It was not exactly clear where the policies of powers of legislature in the president would be defined. Created thatally office and many of the president s, many of the things we come to think of as president ial really come down from his example in the office. Age 57 whenof 1789, he took the oath. What were his views at the time about expanding or restricting the power of the office he was stepping into . Washington had already established the idea that civilians should be in control, that we needed to exercise restraint. He knew he wanted the ability to have one Foreign Policy that would number his office. He knew that he wanted to have one military voice in the country that would be in his office. He knew that the government would have to be able to collect taxes, things like that, that couldnt be done. He also knew he needed to represent the nation. The presidency is really the peoples office in an interesting way. Its the only office, of course, which represents everybody in the legislative branch. Of course, the house of representatives, people represent their district. In the senate, they represent the state. And so as president he is the only elected officer that represents all the people. And so he also wanted to sort of embody and help create a National Identity at a time when there really wasnt much holding these states together. Host George Washington and the presidency is our topic in this hour of the washington journal. And we tpwhesm our viewers on American History tv on cspan3 on this president s day. Were talking with douglas bradford, the president and c. E. O. Of George Washington ace mount vernon. Taking your phone calls as well, as we talk about George Washington and the presidency. If youre in the eastern or central time zones, its 2027488000. In the mountain or pacific time zones, 2027488001. Well also look for your Text Messages as well. Thats number 2027488002. Douglas bradford, if George Washington couldnt know at the time exactly how the office of the presidency would evolve over time, did he know that it wouldee sandrolve would he be ok with that . Guest well, thats a really great question. Washington gives us a hint of whats in his mind with the presidency. He writes a great letter to katherine mcculley graham, an english historian, a woman, which is remarkable for the time, and she is shes a friend of the washingtons and a big fan of the American Revolution and George Washington in general. And he writes an extraordinary letter to her january, i think its 9, 1790, after the first session of congress. The new session is coming back, and he wroits a letter in which he says i walk on untrodden ground. Everything i do is subject to two interpretations. Everything i do is creating a precedent. So he understands very clearly that his role in that office is going set in train the next generation of how the presidency will function. Hes worried about the news cycle on the one hand, like all politicians must. But he also really has his eyes on the long term, a longterm vision, you know, 30 years, what will this office of the presidency be luke . So hespresidency be like . He is very aware of how important it is that he sets these precedents at works through them. A lot of the things we come to take for granted about the presidency he had to create. I will give you one quick example, the cabinet. The constitution says that from time to time, the chief executive can ask the opinion of these heads of the executive apartments. Secretary of state, secretary of does not say anything about meeting regularly. Washington stays strict with the rules, so to speak. Period of his presidency, he gets advice from his executive officers in writing. He asks questions, he has them respond in writing. About 1793, four years into his presidency during the crisis of the french , 1792, he starts meeting weekly with the cabinet. We have to think, it was obvious he would meet regularly with the cabinet. We take of the cabinet as this consulting body, but the constitution is not clear about that. Management style in that regard helped create this whole function of the cabinet. There are 16 members of the cabinet today, how many members were there for George Washington . Guest much smaller. He had the secretary of war, henry knox. Secretary of state thomas jefferson, and then alexander hamilton, secretary of the treasury. Edmund randolph, the attorney general at the time. Interestingly, john adams who was the Vice President was not a member of the cabinet. He was kept out, essentially. Hehington saw him since was president pro tem of the summit senate, he saw him as a legislator and did not want to have the executive and legislative branch mitch together mixed together. It is interesting because the senate was supposed to be the consulting body of the president. The president is supposed to get advice and consent to get a treaty ratified in the senate, so they share the power to make treaties. Point of fact, the senate was something that was too politico for it to be a good consulting body for washington. He could not get rid of senators. He had no control over their appointment. They were not secretive enough. It would be too easy for arguments to spread and get out into the world. The senate clearly was a deliberative body, not a consulting one. It is interesting to see how washington made the cabinet into this consulting body that the senate was thought to be picked thought to be when the constitution. Host joining us from the Mount Vernon Museum and Education Center. On the grounds of George Washingtons historic mount vernon. We are asking you to join us in this segment of washington journal. Zones, or central time 202 7488000. If you have a question in the mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. In this hour, we will explore some of the collections of the museum and Education Center there. I want to start with the copy of congress that George Washington owned and cared for. We visited the museum and Education Center back in 2012, just after that copy of the acts of congress had been purchased for some 10 million. I want to show viewers what it looks like and what George Washington did to learn about the powers of the presidency. Veryorge washington is exacting with his books. We see that he takes great care of them. Glass them in beautiful shelves in his personal library at mount vernon. Often putting a wonderful flourish of his grand signature in the upper righthand corner of the title page, which he does with this. Terrificften puts a bookplate. This is a bookplate that washington ordered for mcglynn. It is engraved. I think it was special to him because it has both his engraved bookplate from a signature on the title page, but what is more distinctive and unusual is that washington makes notes in the margin. We almost never see washington writing any marginalia. In several places, he carefully brackets his powers and his role as president. One of thein article constitution here bracketing and writing the words president , next to those duties he is to follow and how he is to follow the enacting of legislation. How you have bills that are ratified by congress in the house of representatives. And then sent onto George Washington as president for either approval or veto. In article two, you see him bracketing not only president , but powers, an interesting word. Toshows the powers he has appoint justices to the supreme court, ratify treaties, and point appoint ambassadors. He is highlighting those powers that are his and those who must delegate to other branches of congress. Host doug bradburn. Interesting seeing the first president s handwriting there in that clip. Talk a little about how elsie learned about this office he was stepping into . Guest George Washington had been in the positions of command and leadership since he was a young man. He had been the kernel of the virginia regiment at age 21. In the military physician, he had been in these roles. He also service the commanderinchief of the American Army for eight years which was as much a political as a military role. In that role, he basically represented the cause of the American Revolution as the face of it. He had to deal with all the different state governments as well as the Continental Congress. A lot of local committees of safety. Probably one of the greatest politician generals we have ever had. He and eisenhower come to mind as the great ones. Who were political generals, so to speak. He was also the president of the constitutional convention. He was there when the office of the presidency was being created. One of the things that is interesting to remember is that article one, which lays out the legislative branch, it is it strictly enumerates the Powers Congress has. Congress is not in session all the time. It only does its work during certain periods of time. Article three is all about the judiciary. There is only very narrow jurisdictions of federal laws of the judiciary. The federal judiciary could have the power to decide, and it is restricted in when it meets its well meets as well article told article two defines the presidency is open. Days asident is on 365 year, has the power to execute laws of the nation. George washington understood that he was entering a potentially very powerful role. There is a lot of latent power in that process. Washington was careful to try to constrain not only by a strict attention to the way those powers are laid out in the constitution, the constitutionality of the office itself, but also in his decorum. His method of appointments, how he would choose to appoint people to positions. He made very careful study not only of the connections of the people that were being put up for office, but also their character. Trust, heviolated his would get rid of them. He wanted to make sure that the early governments did not have a reputation for corruption and wanted to use his office to set that standard early on. Washington understood power. He understood leadership. But, it was a new office. Congress, the acts of the extraordinary copy of the constitution he writes in really shows the way washington, at the height of his powers, worked. Every great leader understands where they fit within an organization, the trajectory of the organization and where they want to take it. We can see that at the moment washington is writing in that book. It is a great moment because it is on the eve of the first state of the union address. It is after he had been president for 10 months or so, and yet here he is sitting down rereading the constitution. Rereading all the laws they pass in the last session and barking up the margins around those areas of his responsibilities. I like the part in article two clause, heke care shall take care he shall take care the he writes required. He is writing the constitution like he is using a highlighter. You see a man in focus there. Its like what we do when we want to focus on something, we highlight the passage. I think him writing required in the context of trying to understand what laws were passed and what hes duties were gives an insight into what he was such an effective leader at the creation of something. Host as the crowds gather at George Washingtons historic mount furman mount vernon this morning, the reenactors are there as well on the grounds of this president s day. Crowds have gathered on our phone lines as well. Tom out of hampton, connecticut. Guest caller good morning. And alsostory buff former member of the governor Samuel Huntington trust. Huntington was president of the Confederation Congress when washington was still general. Different, ie was am trying to do research on samuel without papers and im wondering how you used washingtons papers online to find out more about Samuel Huntington, john witherspoon, and some other members of the Continental Congress . Host that is guest theres tremendous resources online to do that research. Online, ato founders free webpage, you can find all the papers of the founders that have been currently digitized and put up there. In washingtons case, i think you are hampered because the revolutionary war papers are not quite done yet. Throughthey are done up 1780, so you dont get the entirety of the war. The story of the Continental Congress during that force fascinating and incredibly important. Obviously for the future growth of Political Institutions at the national level. Another great resource is the library of congress. It has letters to the delegates of the first congress. Recordsl of the formal of the Congress Others well. All searchable, digital and online. Back in the day when i did my dissertation, none of that existed and i had to go to the library and take all this out. Thats why it took me a long time. You have the benefit now to use the great things that have been digitized and are available online. I am happy to say that mount vernon is part of that work. One of the documentary editors works here at our library. We work and Great Partnership with the papers of George Washington at the university of virginia who are systematically transcribing and annotating, and publishing all of the papers of George Washington. It was or a markable to think that project started in 1968. It was thought to take 20 years. We just had our 50th anniversary of that project the year before last. I thicket is going to take another 10 years before they finally finished all the massive correspondence of George Washington. Host might be a good time to talk about the Education Center. How long have you been around . Inst i came to mount vernon 2013 when the Ladies Association opened the president ial library for George Washington. I had been a professor of history at suny binghamton. When the association was opening this library, they wanted an academic. A couple years ago i was made the president over the whole shooting match. Mount vernon is a remarkable institution. It is totally private. We are not one of the smithsonian museums, not a National Parks service. We came about because a group of women in the 1850s led by and cunningham saved the house of George Washington from destruction and made it a museum, made it open for the public. We are celebrating our 160th year of being a public history site Whose Mission is to preserve mount vernon and educate people about his legacy. We educate folks on the ground. Today, we are going to welcome up to 15 thousand visitors because it is washingtons birthday observed. President s day as you call it. We are excited for that. Not only can people see the mansion and his tomb where he and Martha Washington are into them, they can come into this structure which is our Education Center. The museum itself is extraordinary. Story of the enslaved mount vernon. Not only washingtons changing attitudes, but biographies of some of the people enslaved here. Where we are right now is basically a biography of George Washington. Folks dont learn enough about George Washington and their traditional history classes. When they come to mount vernon we want to make sure they learn as much as i can. Host where going to show viewers a picture of mount vernon in near ruins just before the civil war in 1858. We did the effort to preserve mount vernon begin . Guest the effort really began in the 1850s. Woman 1853, there was a a south carolinian on the potomac on a steamboat headed home who saw mount vernon in moonlight, and saw that it was physically dilapidated. It was in danger of falling down. She asked her daughter to begin a movement to try to save mount vernon. Last washingtons who owned mount vernon was a family of John WashingtonJohn Augustine washington the third. He could no longer maintain the place. It was an expensive old structure built in the 18th century, never intended to last 70 years, let alone hundreds. So, it was in dire need of work. What is remarkable is that these John Augustine washington try to sell mount vernon to the government, the state of virginia, but none of them would have anything to do with it. There was no National Parks system. No smithsonian. Together undere the leadership of cunningham and said if the men of america want save the father of our countrys house, the ladies shall. The Ladies Association still manages this place. They were able to raise 200,000 from all over the country. They raised it in one dollars, f