In this document, the delegates granted much more power to the new congress. They also created the office of president, endowing it with substantial authority but subordinate to that of the legislature. Still feeling strongly about the dangers of allowing an executive to declare war, they vested that power in congress. They did give the president the title of commander in chief of the army, navy and militia but with no authority to declare or initiate war.
James Madison expressed well the dread of abuse of the war power through what today we might identify as a macho impulse. "War," he wrote, "is the true nurse of executive aggrandizement . . . . In war the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed." Axiomatically, "the executive is the department of power most distinguished by its propensity to war." Hence, "it is the practice of all states, in proportion as they are free, to disarm this propensity of its influence."
Since the founders revered George Washington, few feared that as president he would plunge the nation into another war. When he left office though, in part because of a squabble with revolutionary France, he had lost much of his popularity. Under John Adams, the quarrel escalated into the Quasi-War, America's first undeclared war, aside from conflicts with Native-Americans. When Adams tried to end the conflict through diplomacy, France responded with insulting behavior, touching off in the United States a frenzy to expand the hostilities, rally-round-the-flag emotions, and an unaccustomed popularity for Adams. He took to strutting in a military uniform, sporting a sword, and making belligerent speeches to approving audiences telling them repeatedly "Let us have war." He also supported assaults on civil liberties as in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Only when the public passion for full-scale war subsided and he realized congress would not declare it, did he opt for peace.
James Madison expressed well the dread of abuse of the war power through what today we might identify as a macho impulse. "War," he wrote, "is the true nurse of executive aggrandizement . . . . In war the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed." Axiomatically, "the executive is the department of power most distinguished by its propensity to war." Hence, "it is the practice of all states, in proportion as they are free, to disarm this propensity of its influence."
Since the founders revered George Washington, few feared that as president he would plunge the nation into another war. When he left office though, in part because of a squabble with revolutionary France, he had lost much of his popularity. Under John Adams, the quarrel escalated into the Quasi-War, America's first undeclared war, aside from conflicts with Native-Americans. When Adams tried to end the conflict through diplomacy, France responded with insulting behavior, touching off in the United States a frenzy to expand the hostilities, rally-round-the-flag emotions, and an unaccustomed popularity for Adams. He took to strutting in a military uniform, sporting a sword, and making belligerent speeches to approving audiences telling them repeatedly "Let us have war." He also supported assaults on civil liberties as in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Only when the public passion for full-scale war subsided and he realized congress would not declare it, did he opt for peace.