Who Else Could Have Been The First US President?

Hamilton was ineligible for the presidency.


Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States of America

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

As others pointed out before your post, Hamilton is most certainly eligible for the Presidency. In fact, the phrase "or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution" was most likely added so that Hamilton could run for the Presidency if he wished.

Which really is a good thing, in my opinion.

Sadly, the worth of your opinion is mitigated by the fact that you weren't aware of what the Constitution actually says on the matter.


Bill
 

FDW

Banned
Hamilton was ineligible for the presidency. Which really is a good thing, in my opinion.

Actually, he was eligible, see here:

US Constitution said:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President

Hamilton was eligible through that second part of that Clause, which I didn't realize until now.
 
So my history teacher is an idiot. I was aware of the fact that Hamilton was eligible for the presidency, but he "corrected" me on this, so from then on I thought otherwise. I should have known, when he said Aaron Burr was executed for treason. :rolleyes:
 
Hamilton was would have been president after Washington if he didn't have an affair. Probebly would have went to war with France if that happened too.
 
So my history teacher is an idiot.


That very well may be true.

However, your history teacher wasn't the one who posted that Hamilton was ineligible for the Presidency after several posters had already explained why he was eligible and quoted the pertinent section of the Constitution as proof.
 
That very well may be true.

However, your history teacher wasn't the one who posted that Hamilton was ineligible for the Presidency after several posters had already explained why he was eligible and quoted the pertinent section of the Constitution as proof.

Is that really necessary?
 
For extra dystopia points, perhaps Francis Marion could be even more popular during the revolution and end up getting it some how.
 
So how would a 1 year Franklin presidency (who would try to significantly reduce the president's power) and a 3 year Hamilton presidency (who would try to give the president more power) turn out? As for worrying about the two term precedent, unlike Washington, no one else really had the star power to pull off even a re-election, so we might see one term presidents becoming a tradition.
 
Strictly speaking he could, and the language in the constitution was written specifically to allow it. Despite being born in Jamaica, he was a US Citizen at the time the constitution was adopted. Had Burr not knocked him off, he could have succeed Jefferson.

I dunno about that. The Federalists were on the way downward at every time after 1800. Once the Jeffersonians have won it's going to take some pretty nasty shit for them to be kicked out of power.
 

maverick

Banned
Hmmm...now that I think so and having talked to an American about this, Franklin is too old, Adams is from Massachusetts and the first President would have had to be Virginian or New Yorker...I think.

A General like Henry Lee III or Henry Knox might be a popular enough choice and acceptable to the then existing political factions.
 
In fact, the phrase "or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution" was most likely added so that Hamilton could run for the Presidency if he wished.
Considering that NONE of the Founding Fathers were Natural Born US Citizens, it's pretty much necessary:)!

Martin van Buren was the first actual 'natural born citizen' to become president.
 
Considering that NONE of the Founding Fathers were Natural Born US Citizens, it's pretty much necessary:)!


Dathi,

Read the passage again, No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States..., and try and put yourself in the minds of those men in 1787.

The phrase "natural born Citizen" meant "born in the thirteen colonies" while the phrase "Citizen of the United States" meant you had to be living in the US when the Constitution was adopted. Together they both meant that, in order to run for the Presidency, either you had to be born in the colonies or, if born elsewhere, you had to have already been a citizen of the United States under the Articles of Confederation before the Constitution was adopted.

All but one of the Founding Fathers meeting in Philadelphia to write the Constitution met the first requirement and the only one who didn't, Alexander Hamilton, met the second.


Bill
 

Ian the Admin

Administrator
Donor
Sadly, the worth of your opinion is mitigated by the fact that you weren't aware of what the Constitution actually says on the matter.

Kicked for a week. Stop being an asshole and show some basic respect for other posters, or you'll be banned. This is your last warning.
 
I have to wonder if Franklin was physically fit for the job, even for a few months. He was rather old, even by today's standards, let alone the 18th Century, and I can't imagine he was fine until his final days.

LoyalistColonial, Hamilton was close to Washington but would Franklin have considered him as number two?
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
I have to wonder if Franklin was physically fit for the job, even for a few months. He was rather old, even by today's standards, let alone the 18th Century, and I can't imagine he was fine until his final days.

LoyalistColonial, Hamilton was close to Washington but would Franklin have considered him as number two?
Franklin, though certainly starting to feel the effects of his age, would be physically fit for the job. After all, he was Governor of Pennsylvania up until 1788, and with him as the first president, he can basically set the standard for how hard the job is. If he's too tired to do any governing, then Congress gets more power and the presidency is delegated to a largely ceremonial position.

And we should also remember that whoever the first POTUS was, their running mate would have to be from the opposite region. By that I mean if a New Englander, New Yorker, or Pennsylvanian were chosen, the VP would have to be from the South, and the same goes for a Southerner being chosen, only in reverse.
 
Apologies for returning to the matter at hand, but - while a one-year Franklin Presidency does seem most probable, Hamilton isn't going to be VP or Pres without GW preceding him. Legally eligible isn't the same thing as electable - Hamilton grew up on St. Nevis and is illegitimate. His "fellows" regard him as a crass upstart with insufficient ties to his community, even before his affair becomes public knowledge (although without a GW presidency his affair may be butterflied away). He accomplished as much as he did largely through GW's patronage (and his innate brilliance, but brilliance only takes one so far). Adams remains the probably VP, manages to alienate people even earlier, flipflops with VP Jefferson in 1896, and Jefferson faces reelection in 1800 from a still-vital Federalist Party that probably chooses C. C. Pinckney or Rufus King over Adams for a candidate.

I see Hamilton sublimating his ambitions into his sons, who are after all "real" New Yorkers, a la Joseph Kennedy...we will see a President Hamilton, it just won't be Little Alex.

Knox and Dearborn are not bad possibilites - New Yorkers with good records from the Revolutionary War, aren't they? Virginia's Lee could work as well.
 
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