G Longini

17/03/2010

During a national crisis, it is much easier to entrust the American president with more
executive power in order to get things done, than to wait for congress to draft legislation.
Abraham Lincoln was president during the American Civil War. Due to the threat of the
Confederacy to break up the Union, President Lincoln was able to strengthen the executive
branch and use this authority to bring the Civil War to an end. The American Civil War was an
internal crisis that allowed the executive branch to gain power at the expense of the legislative
and judicial branches. President Franklin Roosevelt was able to expand executive power in order
to ease the financial crisis that swept the nation as a result of the great depression. The evidence
will show that it is not just by will of the president that executive power expanded, but it was the
presidencies of Lincoln’s and Roosevelt’s predecessors that required and allowed a strong leader
to be at the helm of the American government.
During the nineteen hundreds, one of the most controversial issues that clouded over
American policy was the issue of slavery. The problem with Franklin Pierce’s and James
Buchanan’s presidency is that they did not want to think of the slavery issue as a national
problem that needed an immediate solution. During these presidencies, “. . . each tried to diffuse,
rather than come to terms with, slavery as a political issue”[1]. The book goes on to say that this
was not an issue that could be ignored anymore. In addition, the fact that these two presidents
ignored the issue aggravated the two sides on the matter. Due to the lack of action during these
presidencies, it became clear that it would be an executive who would need to take action on the
slavery issue.
Abraham Lincoln began his presidency on March 4th, 1861. The Civil War began in
April of 1861, only one month after the start of his presidency. To add to the problem, Congress
at that time was not in session. Lincoln became president with almost no votes from southern
states. South Carolina was the first southern state to secede from the Union because of the
slavery issue. When Lincoln took office six other states had seceded as well. Lincoln declared
that seceding from the Union was unconstitutional and would not be allowed.
Since congress was in recess, Lincoln assumed power and initiated what scholars
referred to as a “Presidential War” on the south. The president exceeded constitutional authority
when he put a naval blockade on the south. He went even farther by suspending habeas corpus
and allowing unwarranted arrests to be made; these arrested offenders were judged by military
tribunals instead of civilian courts.[2] Abraham Lincoln expanded the executive branch by using
ceremonial pronouncements and executive orders. One of these executive orders expanded his
authority even more by declaring that declared draft evasion, or encouraging draft evasion, a
crime.
Franklin Roosevelt’s executive expansion was also a result of a weak predecessor that
caused a crisis within the country. This crisis was The Great Depression. While the two crises are
in different categories, one being a national crisis and the other being a financial crisis, the
patterns that subsequently allowed the two presidents to expand the executive branch in order to
forward their agenda.
Roosevelt’s predecessor was Herbert Hoover. Hoover was known in the fact that he
showed a “strange paralysis” while dealing with Congress during his presidency.[3] While The
Great Depression was about to explode, Hoover remained silent in terms of shaping and
influencing legislation. It was in his views about the presidency “. . . that no president should
undermine the legislative and judicial branches by seeking to discredit them”.[4] Because of this
view, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff even though there was opposition from all parts of the
country.
Franklin Roosevelt, a skillful politician, was able to use this crisis and failed presidency
of his predecessor to shape legislation and create his welfare state. The first sign of Roosevelt’s
expansion of the executive branch was the signing of The Bank Edict. This was an executive
order that stopped all bank transactions for four days. He did this because Americans were
withdrawing gold from banks due to its lasting value. What made this exertion of presidential
power so unprecedented was the fact that the executive order was issued during peace time.
Immediately after, he called Congress into a special session by executive order. The president
introduced the Emergency Banking Bill with the purpose of “. . . restoring the people’s trust in
the banking system”.[5] Within the first hundred days, Congress passed many bills that were
introduced by Roosevelt. By acting quickly when signing these executive orders, his presidential
powers were secured. Then he introduced The New Deal, which included the Social Security
Act. Due to Roosevelt’s success with domestic policy as well as foreign policy during WWII, he
is the only president who was elected more than twice.
Both Lincoln and Roosevelt assumed the presidency during a crisis caused by their
predecessors. Due to the fact that they entered the office during a crisis, they were given more
leniencies when expanding presidential power in order to deal with each of their crises.
It is interesting to observe the evidence that shows that when a crisis struck the nation, it
was the presidents, during that time, who received a great deal of power to deal with the crisis.
Both Lincoln and Roosevelt led the nation through very difficult times and successfully pulled
America out of it. Roosevelt went on to be elected four times. As a result, the 22nd amendment
was passed that restricted the president to two terms in office. Had Lincoln not been assassinated,
it is possible that due to his success he would too be elected for a third or even fourth term.
However, this cannot be proven.

[1] American Presidency, 145

[2] Class notes
[3] American Presidency, 273; Class Notes
[4] American Presidency, 274
[5] Ibid, 284