Question

Consider the roles of the presidency as laid out in Article 2 of the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt
. Did each of these presidents meet or exceed these duties?
. What events led each of these presidents to expand power to the office?
. How is the presidency today similar to or different from what it was then?
Answer the above questions in at least 2-3 sentences each.

Answer 1

Abraham Lincoln: Article II makes the president commander-in-chief, chief executive, and responsible for faithfully executing the laws, making appointments and conducting foreign policy; Lincoln exceeded those duties by using broad wartime powers—suspending habeas corpus, ordering blockades without prior Congressional declarations, and issuing the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure. The exigencies of the Civil War and the need to preserve the Union drove him to assume extraordinary authority to direct military strategy, secure the capital, and suppress insurrection. Today’s presidency still claims emergency and commander-in-chief powers rooted in Lincoln’s precedents, but there are now stronger legal and institutional constraints (courts, a larger Congress, public opinion, and statutory limits) and a far larger administrative state that both enables and checks executive action.

Theodore Roosevelt: TR embraced a “stewardship” view of Article II—acting for the public good unless explicitly forbidden—so he pushed the office beyond traditional bounds through trust-busting, aggressive regulation, conservation programs, and an assertive foreign policy (“big stick”) that asserted U.S. hemispheric power. Rapid industrialization, corporate concentration, labor unrest, and new international opportunities prompted him to expand executive authority to regulate commerce, protect resources, and project power abroad (e.g., Panama Canal diplomacy, interventions in Latin America). The modern presidency still uses the bully pulpit, regulatory agencies, and diplomatic/foreign-policy initiative in ways TR modeled, but today those powers are embedded in a much larger federal bureaucracy and are more constrained by administrative law, partisan media, and institutional checks.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: FDR dramatically expanded the chief executive’s role under Article II by transforming the federal government into the principal organizer of economic relief and recovery (New Deal agencies, Social Security) and by centralizing wartime mobilization as commander-in-chief during WWII. The Great Depression’s economic collapse and the global emergency of World War II justified and necessitated unprecedented federal programs, delegated regulatory authority, and executive-led coordination of the economy and society. The contemporary presidency owes much to FDR’s precedent—expectations that presidents manage the economy and lead in crises are now standard—while today’s president operates within a vast administrative state, more extensive statutory delegation, intensive judicial review, and a 24/7 media/political environment that both empowers and constrains executive action.