President s day. First, sir, explain the significance of that moment thats portrayed over your shoulder there, the swearing in of George Washington. You see the first president being sworn in at federal hall in new york city. This would have been in 1789 in april. How well were the duties and the powers of the office that he was about to step into . How well were they defined at that moment when he was sworn in . They werent defined at all. There was nothing like it in america and really in the world. It was a new experiment of an elected magistrate who would at one point be the head of state like a king but at the same time also sort of the chief executioner of the laws, the chief executive in this case, the chief policymaker. And it wasnt exactly clear where the powers of the legislature and where the powers of the president would be defined. Washington created that office and many of the precedents, many of the things we come to think of as president ial really come down from his example in the office. April of 1789, age 57, when he took the oath. What were his views at the time about expanding or restricting the power of the office that he was stepping into . Well, George Washington had already established the idea that civilians should be in control, that we needed to exercise restraint. On the other hand he knew this new government needed to succeed, and he knew certain powers needed to exist to make sure there wouldnt be, as he would call it, anarchy and confusion. So he knew that he wanted the ability to have one Foreign Policy that would be in 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 needed to represent the nation. The presidency is really the peoples office and in an interesting way the only office, of course, which represents everybody in the legislative branch. Of course the house of representatives. People represent their districts. In the senate they represent the states. 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. George washington and the presidency is our topic in this hour of the washington journal. We welcome in our viewers on American History tv on cspan3 on this president s day, talking with president brat burn, the president and ceo of George Washingtons mt. 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. Mountain or pacific time zones 2027488001. Well also look for your Text Messages as well. Thats 2027488003. He couldnt know how the office of the presidency would evolve over time. Did he know that it would be evolve, and was he okay with that . 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 katharine graham, an english historian and a woman, which is remarkable for the time. She is shes a friend of the washingtons and shes a big fan of the American Revolution and George Washington in general. He writes an extraordinary letter to her january i think its 9th, 1790, where after the first session of congress actually, the new session is coming back. He writes a letter to her 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 to set in train the next generation of how the presidency will function. So 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 like. So hes very aware how important it is that he sets these precedents and works through them. A lot of the things that we come to take for granted about the presidency he really had to create. So ill just give you one quick example which is the cabinet itself. So the constitution says that from time to time the chief executive can ask the opinion of these heads of the executive departments, the secretary of state, the secretary of treasury at the time, and it doesnt say anything about meeting them regularly and talking. And so washington kind of stays very strict with the rules, so to speak. Most the early period of his presidency he gets advice from his executive officers in writing. He asks a series of questions to them. He has them respond in writing, and it only really is about 1793, so four years into his presidency during the crisis in the french revolution gets really bloody and dangerous, or 1792, that he starts meeting weekly with the cabinet. So we come to think, well, its obvious that you would meet regularly with the cabinet. We think of the cabinet as this consulting body. But the constitution is not really clear about that at all, so washingtons management style and his innovations in that regard help create this whole this whole function of the cabinet. There are 16 members of the cabinet today, the president s cabinet. How many members were there for George Washington . Much smaller cabinet in his day. So he had the secretary of war, henry knox. He had the secretary of state, thomas jefferson. And then he had Alexander Hamilton as the secretary of treasury. And then edmond randolph, who was the attorney general at the time, also. Interestingly, john adams, who was the Vice President , he was not a member of the cabinet. He was kept out essentially. I mean washington saw him, since he was president pro tem of the senate, he saw him as a legislator and he didnt want to have the executive and the legislative branch mixed like that together. This is kind of interesting as well, because the constitution sort of implies that the senate is going to be the consulting body of the president. Like the treatymaking power. 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. But in point of fact, the senate was something that was too political for it to be a very good consulting body for George Washington. First of all, he couldnt get rid of senators. You know, he had no control over their appointment. They werent secretive enough. It would be too easy for arguments to spread and get out into the world. And so the senate clearly was a deliberative body and not a consulting one. So its interesting to see how washington made the cabinet into this consulting body that the senate was sort of thought to be when the framers wrote the constitution itself. Doug bradburn joining us from the mt. Vernon museum and Education Center there on the grounds of George Washingtons historic mt. Vernon, asking you to join us in this segment of the washington journal on American History tv. Phone lines in the eastern or central time zones, 2027488000 if you have a question. In the mountain or pacific time zones, 2027488001. In this hour well explore some of the collections of the museum and Education Center there. I want to start with the copy of the acts 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 a bit of what it looks like and what president George Washington did to learn about the powers of the presidency. George washington is very, very exacting with his books. We see that he takes great care of them. He has them in beautiful glass fronted shelves in his personal library at mt. Vernon. Often putting a wonderful flourish of his grand signature in the upper righthand corner of the title page which he does with this volume. He also, especially on very important books, puts a book plate. This is a book plate washington ordered from england, engraved in london. This volume was pretty special because it has his engraved book plate, his signature on the title page, but what is even more distinctive and more unusual is that washington makes notes in the margin, and we almost never see washington writing any marginalia. In several places he very carefully brackets his powers and his role as president. We see him, for instance, in article 1 of the constitution here bracketing and writing the words president next to those duties that 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 in the senate and then sent on to George Washington as president for either approval or veto. And then again in article 2, you see him bracketing not only putting president but also powers which is an interesting word that he uses, and it shows the powers that he has to appoint justices to the supreme court, to ratify treaties, to appoint ambassadors. So hes really sort of understanding exactly those powers that are his and those that he must delegate to the other important branches of congress. Doug bradburn, interesting seeing the first president s handwriting there in that clip. Talk a little bit about how else he learned about this office that he was stepping into. Yeah. Well, so George Washington of course had been in positions of command and leadership since he was a young man. He had been the colonel of the virginia regiment at age 21. In the military position hed been in these roles. He also, of course, served as the commander in chief 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, the American Revolutionary cause as the face of it and he had to deal with all the different state governments as well as the Continental Congress. A lot of local committees of safety. So he was a hes really probably one of the greatest politicians generals we have ever had. He and eisenhower really come to mind as the great ones who were political generals, so to speak. Of course he was also the president of the constitutional convention, so he was there when the office of the presidency was being created. One of the things i think thats interesting to remember about the constitution is that article 1, which lays out the legislative branch, you know, it strictly enumerates the powers that congress has. Congress is not in session all the time, it only does its work certain periods of time. Article 3, which is all about the judiciary, of course, theres only narrow jurisdictions of federal laws that the judiciary, the federal judiciary will have the power to decide. Its very restricted. When it meets as well. Whereas article 2 which defines the presidency is actually quite wide open. You know, the president is on 365 days a year all the time, has this power to execute the laws of the nation. And so George Washington understood that he was entering a potentially very powerful role. Theres a lot of latent power in that office that washington was very careful to try to constrain not only by a strict attention to the way those powers are laid out in the constitution, so the constitutionality of the office itself, but also in his decorum in office, in his method of appointments, how he would choose to appoint people to positions. You know, he he made very careful study not only of the connections of the people that were being put up for office, but also as he would say their character. And if people violated his trust, he would get rid of them. He would immediately remove them. So he wanted to make sure that the early government didnt have a reputation for corruption and wanted to use his office to set that standard early on. So washington understood power. He understood leadership. But it was a new office. And i do think the acts of congress, that extraordinary copy of the constitution that he writes in really shows the way washington at the height of his powers worked. Every great leader understands where they fit within the organization, where they fit within the trajectory of the organization and where they want to take it going forward. We can see that at the moment washington is writing in that book, its a great moment because its on the eve of the first state of the union address. So its after he had been president already for ten months or so, and yet here he is sitting down and rereading the constitution, rereading all the laws they passed at the last session and marking up the margins around those areas of his responsibilities. I particularly like the part in article 2 under the take care clause where it says he shall take care the laws be faithfully executed. George washington writes required next to that. Its a remarkable moment. Hes writing in the constitution like hes using a highlighter. Youre just seeing a mans mind in focus there, its not a commentary on the constitution. Its like we do when we want something, we highlight the passage. I think him writing required in the context of trying to understand what laws had been passed and what his duties were really gets an insight into why he was such an effective leader at the creation of something. As the crowds gather at George Washingtons historic mt. Vernon this morning and the reenact ors are there as well on the grounds on this president s day, the crowds have gathered on our phone lines as well to chat with you. Tom is up first out of hampton, connecticut. Good morning, tom. Caller good morning. How are you doing this morning . Sir, im a history buff and also a former member of the governor Samuel Huntington trust. Samuel huntington was president of the Confederation Congress when washington was still general. President is quite different. Im trying to do research on Samuel Huntington without papers and im wondering how to use George Washingtons papers online to find out more about Samuel Huntington, John Witherspoon and some of the other members of the Continental Congress. Oh, great, tom. Thats an excellent question. Theres tremendous resources online to do that research. If you go to founders online, which is a free web page, you can find all the papers of the founders that have been currently digitized and put up there. In washingtons case, i think youre a little hampered because the revolutionary war papers are not quite done yet. There is i think theyre done up through about 1780, so you dont get the whole entirety of the war. But the story of the Continental Congress during that war is fascinating and incredibly important, obviously for the future growth of the Political Institutions at the National Level as well. Another great resource is the library of congress has the papers, the letters to the delegates of the First Congress are available, plus all the kind of formal records of the congress are there as well. All searchable, all digital and online. You know, back in the day when i did my dissertation none of that stuff existed and i had to go to the library and dig all this stuff out, thats why it took me a long time. But, you know, you have the benefit now to use the great things that have been digitized and are available online. Im happy to say that mt. Vernon is a part of that work. We have one of the documentary editors works here at our president ial library and we work in Great Partnership with the papers of George Washington at the university of virginia who are systematically not only papers of George Washington. When that project started in 1968, we thought it would take 20 years. We just had our 50th anniversary of that project year before last and i think it will take another ten years before they finally finish all the correspondence of George Washington. It might be a good time to talk about the museum and Education Center. How long have you been around and what do you do there . Yeah, so i came to mt. Vernon in 2013 actually, when the Ladies Association opened the president ial library for George Washington. I had been a professor of history up at Suny Binghamton university in upstate new york. When the Ladies Association was opening this library, they wanted an academic to come down. A couple years ago i was made the president over the whole shooting match. Mt. Vernon is a remarkable institution because its fully private. Were not one of the smithsonian museums, were not part of the National Park service. We came about because a group of women in the 1850s led by Ann Pamela Cunningham saved the house of George Washington from destruction really and made it a museum, made it open for the public. So we are celebrating our 160th year of being a public history site Whose Mission is to preserve mt. Vernon and educate people about