Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush

by John Yoo

  2 First Draft of the Virginia Constitution (1776), in 1 The Papers of Thomas Jefferson 337, 341 (Julian P. Boyd ed., 1950).

  3 Jefferson to Madison, Dec. 20, 1787, in 12 Ibid. at 442.

  4 Jefferson to Madison, Sept. 6, 1789, in 15 Ibid. at 392, 397.

  5 Jefferson to Roane, Sept. 6, 1819, 10 The Writings of Thomas Jefferson 140 (Paul L. Ford ed., 1904).

  6 Hamilton to Bayard, Jan. 16, 1801, in 25 The Papers of Alexander Hamilton 319-24 (Harold Syrett ed., 1965).

  7 Adams, supra note 1, at 354.

  8 See, e.g., Sidney M. Milkis & Michael Nelson, The American Presidency: Origins & Development, 1776-1993, at 103-04 (2d ed. 1994).

  9 See Ralph Ketcham, Presidents Above Party: The First American Presidency, 1789-1829, at 106 (1984); see also Bailey, supra note 1, at 5-27; Mayer, supra note 1, at 222-56; Schmitt, supra note 1, at 326-46. Bruce Ackerman traces the rise of "presidential democracy" under Jefferson to the failure of the Electoral College system in the election of 1800 and the embrace of popular majoritarianism to support Jefferson's selection. Bruce Ackerman, The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy 245-66 (2005).

  10 See Bailey, supra note 1, at 16-20; Schmitt, supra note 1, at 341-43.

  11 Federalist No. 23, at 147 (Alexander Hamilton) (Jacob E. Cooke ed., 1961).

  12 Bailey, supra note 1, at 15-22.

  13 11 Papers of Jefferson, supra note 2, at 679.

  14 McDonald, Presidency of Jefferson, supra note 1, at 36.

  15 Ibid. at 34-36; see also Peterson, supra note 1, at 680; Marc Landy & Sidney Milkis, Presidential Greatness 65 (2000).

  16 Jefferson to Roane, Sept. 6, 1819, in 10 Writings of Jefferson, supra note 5, at 141.

  17 Jefferson to Abigail Adams, Sept 11, 1804, in 8 Ibid. at 310-11.

  18 Jefferson to Roane, Sept. 6, 1819, in 10 Ibid. at 141.

  19 Jefferson to Dickinson, Dec. 19, 1801, 10 The Writings of Thomas Jefferson 302 (Andrew A. Lipscomb ed., 1903-04).

  20 Richard E. Ellis, The Jeffersonian Crisis: Courts and Politics in the Young Republic 70 (1971).

  21 Quoted in McDonald, supra note 1, at 81.

  22 Jefferson to Hay, June 20, 1807, in 9 Writings of Jefferson, supra note 5, at 59-60.

  23 The Barbary Pirates are usefully discussed in Abraham Sofaer, War, Foreign Affairs, and Constitutional Power: The Origins 208-27 (1976); Schmitt, supra note 1, at 336-37; Gerhard Casper, Separating Power: Essays on the Founding Period 45-67 (1997); and Montgomery Kosma, Our First Real War, 2 Green Bag 2d 169 (1999).

  24 The Complete Annals of Thomas Jefferson 213 (Franklin B. Sawvel ed., 1903).

  25 Smith to Dale, May 20, 1801, in 1 Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers 465 (1939).

  26 Kosma, supra note 23, at 174.

  27 President's Message, Dec. 8, 1801, in 7 Annals of Congress 11, 12 (Joseph Gale 2d ed., 1789).

  28 Act of Feb. 6, 1802, 2 Stat 129.

  29 The Examination No. 1, Dec. 17, 1801, in 25 Papers of Hamilton, supra note 6, at 444, 456.

  30 See Sofaer, supra note 23, at 216-21.

  31 See ibid. at 172-73; McDonald, supra note 1, at 135-37; and Bradford Perkins, Prologue to War, 1805-1812: England and the United States 142-44 (1961).

  32 The events surrounding the purchase are described in Robert Tucker & David Hendrickson, Empire of Liberty: The Statecraft of Thomas Jefferson 87-171 (1990); Malone, First Term, supra note 1, at 239-332; and McDonald, supra note 1, at 53-73.

  33 Quoted in Malone, First Term, supra note 1, at 285.

  34 Gary Lawson & Guy Seidman, The Constitution of Empire: Territorial Expansion and American Legal History 29 (2004).

  35 Malone, First Term, supra note 1, at 312.

  36 Jefferson to Dickinson, Aug. 9, 1803, in 8 Writings of Jefferson, supra note 5, at 262.

  37 Jefferson to Breckinridge, Aug. 12, 1803, in 8 Ibid. at 242.

  38 Jefferson to Breckinridge, Aug. 18, 1803, in 8 Ibid. at 245; see also Jefferson to Paine, in 8 Ibid. at 245.

  39 Jefferson to Nicholas, Sept. 7, 1803, in 8 Ibid. at 247.

  40 See Mayer, supra note 1, at 253.

  41 Jefferson to Colvin, Sept. 20, 1810, in 9 Writings of Jefferson, supra note 5, at 279.

  42 Bailey, supra note 1, at 15-22; and Schmitt, supra note 1, at 343-46.

  43 Quoted in Edwin Corwin, The President: Office and Powers, 1787-1984, at 18 (Randall W. Bland et al, eds., 5th ed. 1984).

  44 Richard Hofstadter, The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States 122 (1969).

  45 See Harvey Mansfield, Thomas Jefferson, in Morton Frisch & Richard Stevens eds., American Political Thought: The Philosophic Dimension of Statesmanship 49 (1983); Landy & Milkis, supra note 15, at 41-43.

  46 Malone, First Term, supra note 1, at 93.

  47 Mayer, supra note 1, at 236-37.

  48 McDonald, Presidency of Jefferson, supra note 1, at 39; Mayer, supra note 1, at 238.

  49 See Casper, supra note 23, at 80-83.

  50 Tucker & Hendrickson, supra note 32, at 14-17.

  51 Ibid. at 18-21.

  52 Quoted in Ibid. at 190.

  53 Gallatin to Jefferson, Dec. 18, 1807, quoted in Malone, Second Term, supra note 1, at 482.

  54 1 Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: 1789-1897, at 422-24 (James D. Richardson ed., 1900); and 2 Stat. 451 (Dec. 22, 1807).

  55 2 Stat. 453 (Jan. 9, 1808).

  56 2 Stat. 473 (Mar. 12, 1808).

  57 2 Stat. 499 (Apr. 25, 1808).

  58 Quoted in Leonard Levy, Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side (1989).

  59 Insurrection Act of 1807, ch. 39, 2 Stat. 443.

  60 Leonard White, Jeffersonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1801-29, at 451 (1951).

  61 Quoted in Ibid. at 461.

  62 2 Stat. 506 (Jan. 9, 1809).

  63 Levy, supra note 58, at 120.

  64 Garry Wills, James Madison 5-7 (2002). Wills's opinion is not universally shared, of course. For more positive biographies of Madison, see Irving Brant, James Madison: The President, 1809-1812 (1956); Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography (1971); Drew N. McCoy, The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy (1991); Jack N. Rakove, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (1990); Robert Rutland, The Presidency of James Madison (1990); and Robert Rutland, James Madison: The Founding Father (1987). For an interesting perspective on whether Madison's interest in political theory interfered with his ability to succeed as a president, see David J. Siemers, Theories About Theory: Theory-Based Claims about Presidential Performance from the Case of James Madison, 38 Pres. Studies Q. 78 (2007).

  65 Perkins, supra note 31, at 223-60.

  66 Rakove, supra note 64, at 151.

  67 Walter LaFeber, The American Age: U.S. Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to the Present 60-61 (1994).

  68 Third Annual Message, Nov. 5, 1811, in 1 Papers of the Presidents, supra note 54, at 491, 494 (James D. Richardson ed., 1900).

  69 Donald R. Hickey, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict 29-37 (1990); LaFeber, supra note 67, at 63.

  70 Hickey, supra note 69, at 72-99, 126-58, 182-254.

  71 J. C. A. Stagg, Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783-1830 (1983), provides a good historical account of the war.

  72 Rutland, Presidency of Madison, supra note 64, at 110.

  CHAPTER 5: ANDREW JACKSON

  1 I have drawn on the wealth of Jackson histories in writing this article. Jackson's larger than life personality has made him the subject of several excellent works. Our generation's leading Jackson biographer, Robert V. Remini, provides great detail on Jackson's life in three volumes. Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson (1977-84) (hereinafter "Remini, Jackson"). Other helpful works include Gerard N. Magliocca, Andrew Jackson and the Constitution: The Rise and Fall of Generational Regimes (2007); H. W. Brands, Andrew J
ackson: His Life and Times (2006); Sean Wilentz, Andrew Jackson (2005); and Donald B. Cole, The Presidency of Andrew Jackson (1993). Our leading history of the Jacksonian period is Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 (2007). Older works, such as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson (1945), are less helpful in portraying Jackson as a proto-FDR and Jacksonian Democracy as a precursor for the New Deal.

  2 Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress (Dec. 8, 1829), in 2 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, at 448 (James Richardson ed., 1896) (hereinafter "Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress") (emphasis in original).

  3 Ibid. at 447.

  4 Ibid.

  5 See Robert V. Remini, The Constitution and the Presidencies: The Jackson Era, in the Constitution and the American Presidency 29 (Martin L. Fausold & Alan Shank eds., 1991).

  6 See ibid. at 35.

  7 1 Remini, Jackson, supra note 1, at 305.

  8 Ibid. at 305-07.

  9 Ibid. at 347.

  10 Ibid.

  11 Ibid. at 348-49.

  12 Ibid. at 349.

  13 Ibid. at 351-64.

  14 Ibid. at 367.

  15 Ibid. at 367-68.

  16 Ibid. at 371-74.

  17 Ibid. at 373.

  18 Ibid. at 374.

  19 Ibid.

  20 3 Remini, Jackson, supra note 1, at 352.

  21 Ibid. at 354-55.

  22 Ibid. at 359-60.

  23 Ibid.

  24 The admission of Texas itself would mark an expansion of executive power. Initially, under President John Tyler, the Senate rejected a treaty annexing Texas by a vote of 35-16 on June 8, 1844. After James Polk defeated Henry Clay in the presidential election that November, Congress enacted a simple statute approving the annexation and admitting Texas as a state by a vote of 120-98 in the House and 27-25 in the Senate. President Tyler signed the law on March 1, 1845, just before Polk was inaugurated. See Vasan Kesavan & Michael Stokes Paulsen, Let's Mess With Texas, 82 Texas Law Review 1587, 1592-93 (2004).

  25 See Howe, supra note 1, at 342-57.

  26 Magliocca, supra note 1, at 14-15.

  27 Ibid. at 346.

  28 Howe, supra note 1, at 347.

  29 Ibid. at 14-15, 22-29.

  30 Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress, supra note 2, at 457-58. Article IV, Section 3 of the United States Constitution states that "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State...without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress."

  31 Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress, supra note 2, at 458.

  32 Ibid.

  33 See Howe, supra note 1, at 348.

  34 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. 1 (1831).

  35 Howe, supra note 1, at 347.

  36 Ibid. at 352; Act of May 28, 1830, ch. 148, 4 Stat. 411, 21st Cong. (1st Sess. 1830).

  37 Cherokee Nation, 30 U.S. 1 (1831).

  38 Magliocca, supra note 1, at 36.

  39 Cherokee Nation, 30 U.S. at 17.

  40 Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515, 561 (1832).

  41 Ibid. at 559. For an insightful discussion of Worcester, see Philip P. Frickey, Marshalling Past and Present: Colonialism, Constitutionalism, and Interpretation in Federal Indian Law, 107 Harvard Law Review 381 (1993).

  42 Cole, supra note 1, at 114.

  43 Howe, supra note 1, at 412.

  44 Ibid.

  45 Ibid.

  46 Ibid.

  47 Ibid. at 412-13.

  48 Ibid. at 415.

  49 Ibid. at 416.

  50 For the claim that Jackson's removal policy amounted to genocide, see Michael P. Rogin, Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian (1975).

  51 Howe, supra note 1, at 420.

  52 Cole, supra note 1, at 34.

  53 2 Remini, Jackson, supra note 1, at 62, 161.

  54 Cole, supra note 1, at 23-24.

  55 Ibid. at 35-36.

  56 Ibid.

  57 Ibid. at 38.

  58 Ibid. at 37.

  59 2 Remini, Jackson, supra note 1, at 213-14.

  60 Andrew Jackson, First Inaugural Address (Mar. 4, 1829), in 2 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 438 (James Richardson ed., 1896) (hereinafter "Richardson, Messages").

  61 Remini, Jackson, supra note 1, at 183.

  62 Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress, supra note 2, at 449.

  63 Ibid. at 448-49.

  64 Cole, supra note 1, at 41.

  65 Ibid.; Howe, supra note 1, at 333.

  66 Leonard White, The Jacksonians: A Study in Administrative History 327-32 (1954); Howe, supra note 1, at 334.

  67 Cole, supra note 1, at 80.

  68 Ibid. at 81 (Jackson to Calhoun, May 30, 1830).

  69 Ibid. at 82.

  70 Ibid. at 84-85.

  71 Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress, supra note 2, at 462.

  72 Ibid.

  73 Daniel Feller, King Andrew and the Bank, 29 Humanities (2008), at www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2008-01/KingAndrewandtheBank.html.

  74 Cole, supra note 1, at 57.

  75 Ibid.

  76 Ibid.

  77 James Madison, Veto Message (Jan. 30, 1815), in 1 Richardson, Messages, supra note 60, at 555.

  78 Ibid.

  79 McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819).

  80 Cole, supra note 1, at 57.

  81 Ibid.

  82 Ibid.

  83 Ibid.

  84 See ibid.; Wilentz, supra note 1, at 76; see generally Walter Smith, Economic Aspects of the Second Bank of the United States (1969).

  85 Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War: A Study in the Growth of Presidential Power 27 (1967) (hereinafter "Remini, Bank War").

  86 Ibid.

  87 Ibid. at 27-28.

  88 For one economist's account, see Murray Rothbard, Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies (1962).

  89 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 30-31.

  90 Ibid. at 32-33, 39.

  91 Ibid. at 37-38.

  92 Ibid. at 34-35.

  93 Ibid.

  94 Andrew Jackson, Second Annual Message to Congress (Dec. 6, 1830), in 2 Richardson, Messages, supra note 60, at 529.

  95 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 74.

  96 Ibid. at 92.

  97 Ibid. at 75-76.

  98 Ibid. at 99.

  99 Ibid. at 77-78.

  100 Ibid. at 80, 93. To throw salt on Jackson's wounds, the Senate (with Vice President Calhoun casting the tie-breaking vote) at the same time rejected Van Buren's nomination as minister to Great Britain.

  101 Ibid. at 15-16 (emphasis added).

  102 Andrew Jackson, Veto Message (July 10, 1832), in 2 Richardson, Messages, supra note 60, at 576-91.

  103 Ibid. at 576-77.

  104 Ibid. at 578.

  105 Ibid. at 581.

  106 Ibid.

  107 Ibid. at 582.

  108 Ibid.

  109 Ibid.

  110 Ibid.

  111 Ibid.

  112 Ibid.

  113 Ibid. at 590.

  114 White, Jacksonians, supra note 66, at 29.

  115 See generally Charles M. Cameron, Veto Bargaining: Presidents and the Politics of Negative Power (2000).

  116 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 84.

  117 Ibid. at 84-85.

  118 Ibid. at 84.

  119 Ibid. at 85.

  120 Ibid.

  121 Ibid.

  122 Ibid. at 87.

  123 Ibid. at 90-101.

  124 Ibid. at 101.

  125 Ibid.

  126 Ibid.

  127 Ibid. at 99-100.

  128 Ibid. at 98-99.

  129 Ibid. at 99.

  130 Ibid. at 103-04.

  131 Ibid. at 105.

  132 Ibid. at 106.

  133 Ibid. at 109.

  134 Ibid. at 111.

&nbs
p; 135 Ibid. at 112-13.

  136 Ibid.

  137 Ibid. at 113.

  138 Ibid. at 113-14.

  139 Act of Apr. 10, 1816, SS 16, 3 Stat. 266, 274, 14th Cong. (1st Sess. 1816).

  140 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 111.

  141 Ibid. at 115.

  142 Ibid. at 116.

  143 Ibid. at 118.

  144 Ibid.

  145 Andrew Jackson, Removal of the Public Deposits (Sept. 18, 1833), in 3 Richardson, Messages, supra note 60, at 7.

  146 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 122.

  147 Ibid. at 123.

  148 Ibid. at 124.

  149 Ibid. at 124.

  150 Ibid. at 126-27.

  151 Ibid. at 127.

  152 Ibid. at 126-27.

  153 Ibid. at 129 ("National Republicans, Bank men, nullifiers, tarriff men, states' righters, former Democrats and other dissidents joined together to form the 'Whig' party, adopting this name to designate their opposition to concentrated power in the hands of the chief executive.").

  154 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 137-38.

  155 Andrew Jackson, Message to Senate (Dec. 12, 1833), in 3 Richardson, Messages, supra note 60, at 36.

  156 Ibid.

  157 Ibid.

  158 Remini, Bank War, supra note 85, at 138.

  159 Ibid.

  160 Ibid.

  161 Ibid. at 138-39.

  162 Ibid. at 140.

  163 10 Reg. Deb. 1187 (1834).

  164 Andrew Jackson, Protest (Apr. 15, 1834), in 3 Richardson, Messages, supra note 60, at 69 (hereinafter "Jackson, Protest"). See Steven G. Calabresi & Christopher S. Yoo, The Unitary Executive During the First Half-Century, 47 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1451, 1545-55 (1997).