Deleted member 139407
Many of us have seen this image make the rounds on Twitter and Reddit (where I sourced) recently and the various threads which have been made because of it (yes, this is another thread based on the picture, now hush):
However, one of these proposed amendments has caught my eye: the 1878 amendment to reform the Office of the President into an Executive Council of Three. Just to give context to the amendment, when this was first being proposed, the infamous presidency of Ulysses Grant had just finished. Grant's presidency was and has been known for its corruption and malpractice during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. To compound that, the nail-biting election of 1876 had just taken place; the one where Rutherford Hayes would win by just one electoral vote and would be the second time (the first being the election of 1824) where the winner of the popular vote (Democratic nominee for President, Governor Samuel J. Tilden) did not win the presidency.*
This proposal was, in retrospect, a culmination of the gripes and criticisms of the Office of the President of the United States up to that point. Come to think of it, the Office of POTUS has had a largely checkered history: its culmination during the Constitutional Convention was almost entirely reliant on the possibility that George Washington was going to be the inaugural holder of the executive office; while we're on the topic of electing the President, lets not forget the other four times this has happened: 1824, 1888, 2000, and 2016; Vice President John Tyler basically asserted and manhandled his way to being the President after William Harrison's death and everyone was largely okay with it despite there being no legal basis for it; good and bad faith criticisms about how much power is held by both the Executive Office and the President have been made since the ratification of the Constitution and many criticisms still face the Office to this day. So, with these points in mind, I want to pose these questions:
When was the latest plausible time the Executive Office could be reformed into a design similar to the one proposed in the 1878 amendment?
What circumstances could plausibly lead to such an overhaul of the Executive Branch?
*I mentioned the election because if the office was to be changed, so too would be the manner in which the office would be elected; albeit, not by much, but still.
Also, just to clear something up, I put this thread in pre-1900 because that was when the aforementioned amendment was proposed: pre-1900.
However, one of these proposed amendments has caught my eye: the 1878 amendment to reform the Office of the President into an Executive Council of Three. Just to give context to the amendment, when this was first being proposed, the infamous presidency of Ulysses Grant had just finished. Grant's presidency was and has been known for its corruption and malpractice during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. To compound that, the nail-biting election of 1876 had just taken place; the one where Rutherford Hayes would win by just one electoral vote and would be the second time (the first being the election of 1824) where the winner of the popular vote (Democratic nominee for President, Governor Samuel J. Tilden) did not win the presidency.*
This proposal was, in retrospect, a culmination of the gripes and criticisms of the Office of the President of the United States up to that point. Come to think of it, the Office of POTUS has had a largely checkered history: its culmination during the Constitutional Convention was almost entirely reliant on the possibility that George Washington was going to be the inaugural holder of the executive office; while we're on the topic of electing the President, lets not forget the other four times this has happened: 1824, 1888, 2000, and 2016; Vice President John Tyler basically asserted and manhandled his way to being the President after William Harrison's death and everyone was largely okay with it despite there being no legal basis for it; good and bad faith criticisms about how much power is held by both the Executive Office and the President have been made since the ratification of the Constitution and many criticisms still face the Office to this day. So, with these points in mind, I want to pose these questions:
When was the latest plausible time the Executive Office could be reformed into a design similar to the one proposed in the 1878 amendment?
What circumstances could plausibly lead to such an overhaul of the Executive Branch?
*I mentioned the election because if the office was to be changed, so too would be the manner in which the office would be elected; albeit, not by much, but still.
Also, just to clear something up, I put this thread in pre-1900 because that was when the aforementioned amendment was proposed: pre-1900.