executive what?

When British America reached ropes end with the king of England, the American Revolution resulted, a war for independence from the mother country. Events started innocuously enough by England’s sovereign, the king, he being desirous of dis-arming the populace to strangle them into absolute submission, except, things backfired. During the war, the thirteen colonies developed and signed Articles of Confederation, “a firm league of friendship,” but a better description would be a feckless form of governance, exempt a federal head. The desire, eliminate a supreme power, uniting the thirteen States independently. On their part, a gross miscalculation, the result of impetuous thought to put in place, a replacement government. The outcome of its eventual failing, the Constitution.

Although, the driving force of both documents; WE THE PEOPLE. The Framer’s, adamant in their desire to not re-create the original system they’d fought to be free from, but ultimately built a likeness to, except, the people would be in charge of those in power to control, including any form of power not resting entirely in one individual. Three branches, executive, legislative, judicial, independent of the other, with certain powers delegated each, but all three, responsible to the fourth branch, the people.

Which should have everyone contemplating “executive orders.” The power of a president to arbitrarily write law, affecting the entire nation, begging: does this power even reside in the Constitution? Including an added ponder point; why would the Framer’s have granted something they fought and died to be free from; the ability for one individual to control the whole. Reference the Declaration of Independence, and the Framer’s constitutional intent becomes obvious, the design against one person having the power to change the country’s course, like the king had when the nation was British America:

The President of the United States would be an officer elected by the people for FOUR years; the king of Great Britain is a perpetual and HEREDITARY prince. The one would be amenable to personal punishment and disgrace; the person of the other is sacred and inviolable. The one would have a QUALIFIED negative upon the acts of the legislative body; the other has an ABSOLUTE negative. The one would have a right to command the military and naval forces of the nation; the other, in addition to this right, possesses that of DECLARING war, and of RAISING and REGULATING fleets and armies by his own authority. The one would have a concurrent power with a branch of the legislature in the formation of treaties; the other is the SOLE POSSESSOR of the power of making treaties. The one would have a like concurrent authority in appointing to offices; the other is the sole author of all appointments. The one can confer no privileges whatever; the other can make denizens [an almost citizen] of aliens, noblemen of commoners; can erect corporations with all the rights incident to corporate bodies. The one can prescribe no rules concerning the commerce or currency of the nation; the other is in several respects the arbiter of commerce, and in this capacity can establish markets and fairs, can regulate weights and measures, can lay embargoes for a limited time, can coin money, can authorize or prohibit the circulation of foreign coin. The one has no particle of spiritual jurisdiction; the other is the supreme head and governor of the national church! (Federalist 69)

Constitutionally, Representatives being the people, and Senators, representatives of the States, a structure, or cycle of intent to prevent power from being abused, three branches designed for specific purposes. In Congress, the power to write law affecting the nation’s citizens, given it alone, consisting of the House and Senate: All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives (Article I/Section 1 of the Constitution). And any bill requiring a taxpayer go into debt: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills (Article I/Section 7 of the Constitution).

The Framer’s were deliberate and articulate with word choice in denoting “All.” Defined: Every one, or the whole number of particulars, or: The whole quantity, extent, duration, amount, quality, or degree; as, all the wheat; all the land; all the year; all the strength (Webster’s 1828). In designing the Constitution, their purpose was to place a clear and concise structure for which branch has the power to write law, along with the powers granted the Executive:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. (Article II/Section 2 of the Constitution)

By design, and without power absolute in one person, the Framer’s even withheld the ability to declare war from the executive, too much control in one person, but they did give the power to veto. Except, the Congress can overrule his objections of law passed, confirming their power, thereby:

The only remaining powers of the Executive are comprehended in giving information to Congress of the State of the Union; in recommending to their consideration such measures as he shall judge expedient; in convening them, or either branch, upon extraordinary occasions; in adjourning them when they cannot themselves agree upon the time of adjournment; in receiving ambassadors and other public ministers; in faithfully executing the laws; and in commissioning all the officers of the United States. (Federalist 77)

Of recent history, two executive orders from two different presidents will unequivocally change the nation, and its course, and all for political purpose, not national protection. President Obama’s DACA, and President Biden’s relief of those holding college debt, which begs for how many and to what extreme. Yet both, without doubt, violate the Constitution on multiple fronts, the antithesis of constitutional design.

So, while we judge and condemn the Framer’s for the one compromise they made to adopt the Constitution, one should look at the history of events leading to its adoption through the lens of the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation. Doing so, they’d find precautions and corrections outside the compromise to fortify the Constitution into perpetuity. Foremost was the power structure to keep from repeating the past, confirming WE THE PEOPLE are held responsible to keep accountable those elected, including a standard of constitutional knowledge of intent and purpose. Without, those in charge have free will to willfully change the nations course, as is happening today by those who have no power to do so:   

We have now completed a survey of the structure and powers of the executive department, which, I have endeavored to show, combines, as far as republican principles will admit, all the requisites to energy. The remaining inquiry is: Does it also combine the requisites to safety, in a republican sense, a due dependence on the people, a due responsibility? The answer to this question has been anticipated in the investigation of its other characteristics, and is satisfactorily deducible from these circumstances; from the election of the President once in four years by persons immediately chosen by the people for that purpose; and from his being at all times liable to impeachment, trial, dismission from office, incapacity to serve in any other, and to forfeiture of life and estate by subsequent prosecution in the common course of law. But these precautions, great as they are, are not the only ones which the plan of the convention has provided in favor of the public security. In the only instances in which the abuse of the executive authority was materially to be feared, the Chief Magistrate of the United States would, by that plan, be subjected to the control of a branch of the legislative body. What more could be desired by an enlightened and reasonable people? (Federalist 77)