most State Governments pick their Chief Executive by the Legislator but in America
the Presidentcy is going to have an independent base of power he's not
picked by the Legislator and 10 of the 13 States the Governor has
a 1 year term this President is going to have a 4 year term.
He's going to be per, most states don't
allow, or many states don't allow, perpetual re-eligibility.
This president is going to be perpetually re-eligible.
Only one of the 13 states New York, has a multi-year term
and perpetual re-eligibility, and so, that's
a three-year term for their governorship.
The presidency is going to be even more powerful at four.
Only one of the states, Massachusetts, Gives the governor, and the governor
alone, a, a veto pin the, the constitution is going to give the president the
veto pin.
And so it's going to combine, in certain ways,
the elements of the two strongest state governorships the.
New York governorship three year term, perpetual re-eligibility.
The Massachusetts governorship, a pardon, a veto pen in his own hand.
And it's going to add all sorts of additional exectuvie
powers to, to this supremely powerful new office being created.
An office To repeat, vastly more powerful than any
state governor, yet much more constrained than an English monarch.
And we’ll talk about those constraints as, as well.
Let’s talk just a bit about what the rules are for who can become president.
So let’s start with the property qualifications.
That's right.
None.
Zero. That's an important number.
We've been talking about numbers.
Zero are the property qualifications to be President.
A person can be elected President even if He's not eligible to be state governor.
And indeed, every state that has a governorship.
Pennsylvania has a kind of a rotating executive council.
But every state that has a single person
as governor has considerable property qualifications for that office.
And of course in England to be the, the chief executive
you have to, be basically the wealthiest person in England, the monarchy.
But, zero property qualifications for the presidency.
A radically democratic vision. Let's talk about religious qualifications.
In England you need to be the head of the state, the defender of the faith.
In America, there are no religious qualifications for the presidency,
and indeed a later provision in the Constitution say, says.
That,
the, in article six, there will be no religious tests for any federal office.
This too, it's a dramatic contrast, not just with the rules in England at the
time, but in the 13 states, only one state, basically,
has gotten rid of all religous qualifications, that's Virginia, and
The vast number of, of state constitutions, religious qualifications,
religious tests, are not just permitted, they are built into the state constitution
itself in about ten of the states. So remarkable openness.
To towns.
Now, the people will get to decide whom they choose, whom they have the most
confidence in, no property qualifications, no religious qualifications.
Now,
there is that thought, that you have, that, that rule in
Article Two, that a President must be a natural born citizen.
Which means that he has to be a citizen on of the day of his birth.
He could have been born abroad, John McCain
for example was born in Panama canal zone.
Mitt Romney's father George Romney who ran for president was born in Mexico,
but they were citizens on the day of their birth and therefore eligible.
And you may thing well
that's kind of a real restriction on, on democracy.
But in fact, and, and, and it may
reflect some anti-immigrant sentiment, but let's remember some things.
First of all Everyone who was already an American citizen, whether foreign born
or not at the time of the Constitution, was eligible to be president.
Alexander Hamilton was born outside the United States,
not born, you know, in effect, a citizen of
the United States, but he was eligible to be president.
James Wilson, we talked about him from
Scotland born in Scotland, he's eligibly present.
Anyone who's proved their loyalty to the American system,
by being here in the American Revolution, is eligible.
They grandfather all those folks in and, and, far from being
anti immigrant, they're very pro immigrant.
Seven of the 39 people who draft
the Constitution at Philadelphia are foreign born.
Vast numbers of foreign born people participate in the
act of ordainment and establishment that result in the constitution.
A third of the early Supreme Court
justices are foreign born, including James Wilson,
four of the first six Secretaries of
the Treasury including Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin
are, are foreign-born.
Roughly a tenth of the first Congress is foreign-born.
Now remember, if you're a naturalized American
who comes later to the United States
after being born under some other flag, you are eligible to be in the House.
And the senate.
And the judiciary. That's not true in England.
In England, foreign born people are basically perpetually ineligible to
be a member of House of Commons or House of
Lords or Privy Council or hold any
important position of honor, trust or profit.
But America's Constitution is open to a very broad range of immigrants.
In part for national security reasons we want folks,
talented people, the Framers did, to come from abroad
and add their strength to the American projects, to
add Their skills and their talents, their their military capacity.
We want
them to come here by western land and and help us in
the next war, which we hope doesn't happen that we fear might.
And so, it's a quite actually a pro-immigration document.
So why this special rule about the presidency?
And I think the idea was ultimately It was a democratic idea in part.
They were concerned that a foreign earl or duke
might come over with a boatload of gold and
buy a presidential election, because there weren't campaign finance rules in place.
They associated foreign-born Chiefs of State with monarchy.
George the First was born outside of England.
George II was born outside of England.
Neither of them spoke English.
So Americans tend to associate foreign born
heads of state with monarchy and aristocracy.
So they were worried Maybe some foreign aristocrat,
the second or third son of Geoge III or something like that.
The Bishop of [UNKNOWN] was going to come over with a huge possie, a
retinue of people, boatload of gold, and try to buy himself an election.
So they created a specific rule and grandfathered in all the loyal
Americans...whether foreign born or American born
who were here during the American Revolution.
the Alexander Hamilton's of the world. The James Wilsons of
the world.
So, so we talked about, no property qualifications.
We talked about no religious qualifications.
The natural born citizen requirement is actually
a egalitarian idea, an anti-aristocracy, anti-monarchy idea.
What about this idea that a president has to be 35?
Isn't that a restriction on the peoples ability to choose
the most virtuous person, isn't that anti-democratic?
Well not quite.
Because the spirit there was actually pro-egalitarian.
Who could get themselves elected president at the age of 33?
What kind of person would have the name recognition to do that.
Now note that they are not thinking about any specific indivudual.
This wasn't.
An effort to try to keep Alexander Hamilton out of the presidency immediately
cause he's only 33.
Everyone understands to repeat that George Washington is
going to be our first president if Virginia says yes.
And he's going to continue to be president as long as he's willing to serve.
So, it's not trying to exclude who's currently
31 or 32 when the Constitution is being considered.