IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND!! SCOTUS says the Executive can now fire nearly the ENTIRE GOVERNMENT at will.

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12. John Tyler spoke the best about this

Nearly 200 years ago.


President John Tyler is barely remembered now and when he is, it's often in regards to in his sunset years as he followed his home state Virginia when it seceded shortly before his death.


Tyler was an anti-Jacksonian Whig (practically the only thing that united them was thinking the presidency had grown too powerful under Andrew Jackson) who got put on the ticket because he was the only one who wanted it. Anyway, Jackson's firing of civil servants to replace them with loyalists was something that truly vexed him. Thomas Jefferson had been a friend to his family and he shared that Founding Father's fear of a strong central government and thought Jackson had taken on almost dictatorial power. Even with Van Buren not really following his predecessor's example, Tyler's number one priority arguably seemed to be reigning in the power of the Executive.

Tyler gave an inaugural address of sorts to Congress to lay out his vision shortly after Harrison's death. While not the only topic he discussed, a good 20-25 percent of the speech has to do with foreseeing an autocratic Chief Executive who would need to be checked from putting lackey's in positions of power, especially over the military. He really does seem to have a premonition about some sort of unitary executive, or Trump like figure.


The section, which I quote in full:

"In view of the fact, well avouched by history, that the tendency of all human institutions is to concentrate power in the hands of a single man, and that their ultimate downfall has proceeded from this cause, I deem it of the most essential importance that a complete separation should take place between the sword and the purse. No matter where or how the public moneys shall be deposited, so long as the President can exert the power of appointing and removing at his pleasure the agents selected for their custody, the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy is in fact the treasurer. A permanent and radical change should therefore be decreed. The patronage incident to the Presidential office, already great, is constantly increasing. Such increase is destined to keep pace with the growth of our population, until, without a figure of speech, an army of officeholders may be spread over the land.

"The unrestrained power exerted by a selfishly ambitious man in order either to perpetuate his authority or to hand it over to some favorite as his successor may lead to the employment of all the means within his control to accomplish his object. The right to remove from office, while subjected to no just restraint, is inevitably destined to produce a spirit of crouching servility with the official corps, which, in order to uphold the hand which feeds them, would lead to direct and active interference in the elections, both State and Federal, thereby subjecting the course of State legislation to the dictation of the chief executive officer and making the will of that officer absolute and supreme.

"I will at a proper time invoke the action of Congress upon this subject, and shall readily acquiesce in the adoption of all proper measures which are calculated to arrest these evils, so full of danger in their tendency. I will remove no incumbent from office who has faithfully and honestly acquitted himself of the duties of his office, except in such cases where such officer has been guilty of an active partisanship or by secret means--the less manly, and therefore the more objectionable has given his official influence to the purposes of party, thereby bringing the patronage of the Government in conflict with the freedom of elections. Numerous removals may become necessary under this rule. These will be made by me through no acerbity of feeling--I have had no cause to cherish or indulge unkind feelings toward any--but my conduct will be regulated by a profound sense of what is due to the country and its institutions; nor shall I neglect to apply the same unbending rule to those of my own appointment. Freedom of opinion will be tolerated, the full enjoyment of the right of suffrage will be maintained as the birthright of every American citizen; but I say emphatically to the official corps, 'Thus far and no farther.' I have dwelt the longer upon this subject because removals from office are likely often to arise, and I would have my countrymen to understand the principle of the Executive action."