President Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental Armed Forces, ran aground of the limits to his military sense of absolute authority when he became President of the United States.
The checks and balances integrated into the Constitution frustrated the normally unflappable leader.
Upon receiving a trade agreement from one of the European nations, Washington brought the treaty to the US Senate, demanding that the ruling body ratify the agreement as soon as possible.
The Senators, dismissive in the face of his haste, condescendingly admonished that they were going to have to take some time reading over the treaty. They would get back to him as soon as they were ready.
The institutional pride and constitutionality which moved the Senate to rebuff the President's demand for quick action on article of legislation illustrates once again the genius of the United States Constitution. One President would never be able to commandeer respect from a coterie of legislators accountable to the several states and their own civic pride.
This institutional integrity is on the rise again, in the wake of a stalwart Republican majority which refuses to take elitist edicts as religious dogma from the current chief executive.
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