New from Cornell University Press:
For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789 (2014), by
Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon (First Federal Congress Project). A description from the Press:
For Fear of an Elective King is Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon's rich account of the title controversy and its meanings.
In the spring of 1789, within weeks of the establishment of the
new federal government based on the U.S. Constitution, the Senate and
House of Representatives fell into dispute regarding how to address the
president. Congress, the press, and individuals debated more than thirty
titles, many of which had royal associations and some of which were
clearly monarchical.
The short, intense legislative phase and the prolonged, equally
intense public phase animated and shaped the new nation's broadening
political community. Rather than simply reflecting an obsession with
etiquette, the question challenged Americans to find an acceptable
balance between power and the people’s sovereignty while assuring the
country’s place in the Atlantic world. Bartoloni-Tuazon argues that the
resolution of the controversy in favor of the modest title of
"President" established the importance of recognition of the people's
views by the president and evidence of modesty in the presidency, an
approach to leadership that fledged the presidency’s power by not
flaunting it.
How the country titled the president reflected
the views of everyday people, as well as the recognition by social and
political elites of the irony that authority rested with acquiescence to
egalitarian principles. The controversy’s outcome affirmed the
republican character of the country’s new president and government, even
as the conflict was the opening volley in increasingly partisan
struggles over executive power. As such, the dispute is as relevant
today as in 1789.
A few blurbs:
"For Fear of an Elective King is a
tightly focused and impressively researched book about the controversy
over what to call the president during the opening days of the first
Washington administration. Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon has examined an
extraordinary array of materials on the question of titles more
generally as well as on the debate itself in its legislative and public
phases."—Peter S. Onuf
"Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon demonstrates that the debate over the proper
title for the nation's new national executive wasn't trivial.
For Fear of an Elective King
suggests a variety of ways in which the debate touched on broader
questions about the fundamental nature of the new nation's new
republican government."—Joanne Freeman
More information is available
here.
