The most dramatic moment in the entire Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787 involved the presidency, and it happened almost at the beginning of the summer. The Virginia Plan was introduced by Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia and on the third day of the discussion, they got to Resolution 7, which is the resolution that allowed for the creation of a national executive. Now this provision called for all of the executive powers of the nation to be vested in this national executive, which would probably be a single person. And sitting there was young Charles Pinckney of South Carolina and, reading Madison’s notes, you can almost hear Charles Pinckney gasp in concern. “Why?” he sputters. “That will make the executive a king—an elected king, but still a king.” Now he was principally worried about the fact that among those powers are the powers of peace and war. The executive would be able to take the nation into war all by himself, on his own say-so. He would be able to conduct the foreign affairs of the nation, all by himself, on his own say-so. And Pinckney, along with everybody else in the room, knew that more republics had ended because of military dictatorship—because of republics turning into military dictatorships than any other cause. Think of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. So you can see why Charles Pinckney would gasp.
And then something interesting happens. Madison reports that “a considerable pause ensued.” And this is actually, I think, the most dramatic moment. It isn’t what anybody says; it’s the fact that they’re all sitting there and none of them knows what to say. Why don’t they know what to say? Well, the problem, the issue with the presidency is to create a presidency strong enough and vigorous enough, with the energy, secrecy, and dispatch necessary for being an effective executive, but without becoming a king. It’s such an important problem, but so difficult, and they didn’t really know how to approach it. But the thing that I think really makes the pause poignant is that sitting there, as the chair of the convention, is General George Washington, the man that everyone knew was going to be the first chief executive of the nation. Well, with the most trusted man in America sitting there, how do you engage in a candid discussion about the dangers of tyranny from the new executive? So people are tongue-tied.