Essay on the powers and functions of the us president
On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot. Accompanying him at that night were his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, a twenty-eight year-old officer named Major Henry R. Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancée, Clara Harris. After the play was in progress, a figure with a drawn stepped into the , aimed, and . The president slumped forward.
Such leaders set the political stage by their mobilization of the masses through speeches and personal appearances, but leave the formulation and administration of actual policy to others. Recent history continues to provide examples of what earlier Progressives, such as the Roosevelts and Wilson, practiced. Recent events also demonstrate that the lack of political accountability, which Wilson decried in the Constitution’s formal separation of powers, is enabled more in his system where the president is “above the fray” while little-known and uncontrolled subordinates carry out all manner of critical policies without, allegedly, his awareness.
Therefore, a president will and must leave the performance of those duties increasingly in the hands of subordinates. The appointment of trusted officials is more important than the selection of wise men of different opinion to give him counsel, as George Washington did, or of leaders of prominent factions within the party coalition, as was the practice of, among others, Abraham Lincoln. Instead, as Wilson wrote, presidents must become “directors of affairs and leaders of the nation,–men of counsel and of the sort of action that makes for enlightenment.”
Kennedy a Good President: Persuasive Essay
Turning off all media for 48 hours does amazing things for clarity. When you return, the insane and unintentional comedy of the civilized world becomes clear. As Voltaire wrote, “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh”. Among the many salient things I noticed after my media hiatus, the U.S. Presidential election stood out as the most curious drama of all. I couldn’t stop laughing, and crying, about how, despite our solemn patriotic pride, we have no idea what we’re doing. Although we’re often asked to vote, we are often too ignorant and self-centered to make good choices.
Ford appreciated that there truly was no "right" answer, and, indeed, there is often no "right" answer in situations requiring moral or political decision-making. But, and this is one reason the pardon remains so relevant today, the public doesn't necessarily need the right answer. What it needs is the right process—that is, assurance that those making decisions on its behalf do so thoughtfully and with integrity, as Ford plainly did. It needs leaders who, when faced with critical decisions, take their own deliberation seriously, understand its moral import, and move slowly, taking pains about the process even, and especially, when the outcome is uncertain—which, almost all of the time, it is.
The day represented is late in 1862; Lincoln has a visitor, an old acquaintance, Mary Livermore. She is a public-spirited activist, but more importantly to the president, a strong worker for his election in 1860 and a very effective fundraiser for the United States Sanitary Commission. The Commissions volunteer contribution to the well-being of the soldiers and military hospitals was monumental. She has come to solicit a handwritten draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to auction at a Sanitary Fair fundraiser in Chicago. She was later to report back that the pages of foolscap with Lincolns handwriting brought $3,000, nearly one eighth of the presidents annual salary of $25,000.
Yet, despite the harsh rhetoric he faced, history has been kind to Ford. Republicans and Democrats alike have since praised him for "integrity," "decency," and "selfless dedication," and as having been an "outstanding statesman [who] wisely chose the path of healing during a deeply divisive time." During Edward Kennedy's presentation of the JFK Profile in Courage award to Ford in 2001, Kennedy cited Ford's "courage and dedication" and conceded that despite his own earlier opposition to the pardon, "time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right."
The winners of the President's Essay Contest are as follows:
We had some good allies at the hearings. The Non–Profits, Music Associates, Design Conference and the town itself. The combination came to be called the Consortium. Hadid had several plans. One plan was for many houses on the racetrack with a little village on the academic campus. We were determined to keep the racetrack the natural prairie it was and the academic campus with as much open space as possible. Luckily, Hadid was building his big hotel, the Ritz–Carlton and had to deal with the City about that as well. He was aware that the Consortium was united against development and he started to make concessions. Eventually he was satisfied with four houses at the southern edge of the racetrack with the rest of the whole Aspen Meadows land, open–space areas and all, basically intact. We were saved. As far as ownership was concerned, nothing had changed. Marvin Goldberger, “Murph,” was a good friend, and had been at some time Chairman of the Board of the Physics Center.
. (2021) '108 President Essay Topics'. 21 December.
I ceased being President in 1986, feeling that the best I had done was to not be in the way and to tie the Physics Center more to the town. In the summer of 1985, my last full year as president, Marty Block who has a lovely home in town, very close to ours and the Center, talked to me about the idea of winter conferences in Aspen. There were a few such in Europe. I had attended one in Schladming, Austria, but there were none in the U.S. The proposed meetings would be one–week concentrated conferences on major timely subjects, discussing the results and implications of recent experiments. This was not a proposal for a boondoggle, but hard work. The schedule would be three hours of lectures in the morning, while the snow is still icy, followed by a five–hour ski and lunch break and three hours of lectures in the evening and finally dinner at the Meadows. I proposed to Marty that it would not be wise to create an instant tradition, but try it as an experiment and see how it went.
. (2024) '192 President Research Topics & Essay Examples'. 25 May.
Now the scene was changed completely. Hadid had to ask the city for zoning for both areas: the Aspen Meadows and the area at the base of Aspen Mountain where the huge hotel was to be. In the fall of 1986, Hadid wanted to meet the President of the Center. I managed to reach Mike Simmons, who would replace me the next summer and he came to Aspen for a few days. The interview gave us both chills. Hadid was very friendly and instead of telling us what horrors he may have in mind, told us that he had looked over all the institutions he now owned and decided that the Physics Center was by far the most important and ended with, “What can I do for you?” I assured him that he could do nothing. This was not the right answer and we left very troubled.