Amy Palombo
Luft
Pre APUSH
5/4/15
Chapter Seven ,
Democracy in Distress 1. One fault that Washington had as a leader was that during the revolution he tried too hard to follow the European style of military rather than taking advantage of colonial methods. Aside from that Washingtons single greatest contribution was that he made a point of following the rules that maintained a democracy.
When the Revolution was over, he could have marched into town and set himself up as King of the United States (in fact there were those who urged him to do just that). But instead, he walked into
Congress, surrendered his commission, and retired to private life. Then later as president, when his term of office ended, he handed it off dutifully to his successor. The first affirmed that the military is subservient to civilian authority, and the second reinforced the importance of peaceful and lawful transfer of power from one chief executive to the next. Both are crucial for any healthy democracy. 2. One of Washington's major precedents that is used now by American politicians is the creation of the presidents cabinets .George Washington created the U.S. President's
Cabinet because he believed that he needed more help with ruling the country, so he appointed Thomas Jefferson (Secretary of State), Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of
Treasury), Henry Knox (secretary of War) and Edmund Randolph (Attorney General) to advise and assist him with his duties. I feel that one precedent of Washingtons we should follow is his farewell address in which he warned us against working with and helping
foreign countries as it might result in war. Washington also warned us against having separate political parties. This seems to be a problem now in our political system there are too many extreme left and right wings and not enough who are willing to compromise. 3. I feel that Hamilton had a better plan for the nation’s future.
Hamilton was a visionary and saw the potential of a great industrial power. His support of a strong central authority was a key reason the young nation was able to sustain itself in the early days, especially in such crises like Shays Rebellion. One reason he may have felt as strongly as he did was his service in the Revolutionary War. Being one of Washington’s staff, he experienced first hand the difficulty the Continental army had with an ineffectual congress to keep it fed and supplied. The weak congress was not able to raise funds to pay for supplies because it had no real power. Washington 4. In the United States executive privilege has been used by the President, and executive officials given
