Swift Pardons and One Commander - Federalist #74
In Federalist #74 Alexander Hamilton discusses the President’s position as the sole head of the military as well as his power to pardon.
Federalist #74
Alexander Hamilton
March 25, 1788
Federalist #74 is extremely short compared to most of the previous Papers.
In it, Alexander Hamilton quickly justifies the President’s place as Commander-in-Chief of all troops.
He then considered the reasoning behind giving the President the power to pardon those convicted of crimes.
Supreme Commander
Hamilton’s argument for why the President should be the sole leader of all military personnel during times of war is simple...an army can only operate properly if placed under authority of one single General.
Interestingly, the Anti-Federalists had very little pushback against this idea despite the President’s authority over State Militias.
This is most likely due to the realization that the Revolutionary War was won using these same tactics. Additionally, most Founders who were students of war would have agreed that multiple Executives only leads to confusion and failure.
The King’s Pardon
Anti-Federalists did, however, take issue with the idea that the President alone could grant pardons for crimes.
The fear came, as usual, from the King of England. The King had a tendency to issue pardons for personal reasons instead of for the best intentions of the general public.
Their argument was that a council or Congress should decide on pardons.
Swift Action
Hamilton’s most compelling point in Federalist #74 is that sometimes pardons would need to be presented quickly for reasons of national interest.
He would soon be proven right when George Washington went on to issue pardons to the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion in a successful attempt to get the country back to normal.
Furthermore, Hamilton would be validated several times throughout American History. Some notable examples are after the Civil War and when President Ford (right or wrong) pardoned Nixon.
I publish Federalist summaries every Friday (and stories about random Founders the other six days of the week).
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Do you love what the Founders had to say?
Me too…that’s why I put some of their quotes on some of my merchandise.
