Editing President of the United States (section)

=== Origins ===
During the [[American Revolutionary War]], the [[Thirteen Colonies]], represented by the [[Second Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]], declared themselves to be independent [[sovereign state]]s and no longer under [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] rule. The affirmation was made in the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], which was written predominantly by [[Thomas Jefferson]] and adopted unanimously on July 4, 1776, by the Second Continental Congress.<ref name="Milkis">{{Cite book |last1=Milkis |first1=Sidney M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkUvAAAAYAAJ |title=The American Presidency: Origins and Development |last2=Nelson |first2=Michael |publisher=CQ Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-87289-336-8 |edition=5th |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=1–25}}</ref> Recognizing the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]],<ref name="Kelly">{{Cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=Alfred H. |title=The American Constitution: Its Origins and Development |last2=Harbison |first2=Winfred A. |last3=Belz |first3=Herman |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-393-96056-3 |edition=7th |volume=I |location=New York |pages=76–81}}</ref> the Continental Congress simultaneously began the process of drafting a constitution that would bind the [[U.S. state|states]] together. There were long debates on a number of issues, including representation and voting, and the exact powers to be given the central government.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1776–1783/articles |title=Articles of Confederation, 1777–1781 |publisher=Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=January 20, 2019 }}{{dead link|date=August 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Congress finished work on the [[Articles of Confederation]] to establish a [[Perpetual Union|perpetual union]] between the states in November 1777 and sent it to the states for [[ratification]].<ref name=Milkis />

Under the Articles, which [[Coming into force|took effect]] on March 1, 1781, the [[Congress of the Confederation]] was a central political authority without any legislative power. It could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, and could not impose any taxes or enforce local commercial regulations upon its citizens.<ref name=Kelly /> This institutional design reflected how Americans believed the deposed British system of [[The Crown|Crown]] and [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] ought to have functioned with respect to the royal [[dominion]]: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire.<ref name=Kelly /> The states were out from under any monarchy and assigned some formerly [[royal prerogative]]s (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress; the remaining prerogatives were lodged within their own respective state governments. The members of Congress elected a [[President of the Continental Congress|president of the United States in Congress Assembled]] to preside over its deliberation as a neutral [[discussion moderator]]. Unrelated to and quite dissimilar from the later office of president of the United States, it was a largely ceremonial position without much influence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Richard J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ybmeEcpEvlsC |title=Founding the American Presidency |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=1999 |isbn=0-8476-9499-2 |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=1}}</ref>

In 1783, the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs.<ref name=Milkis /> By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak and their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another. They witnessed their [[hard currency]] pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] commerce preyed upon by [[North Africa]]n [[Barbary pirates|pirates]], and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest.<ref name=Milkis /> Civil and political unrest loomed.  Events such as the [[Newburgh Conspiracy]] and [[Shays' Rebellion]] demonstrated that the Articles of Confederation were not working.

Following the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between [[Virginia]] and Maryland at the [[Mount Vernon Conference]] in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the [[Annapolis Convention (1786)|convention]] failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, [[Alexander Hamilton]] of New York led the Annapolis delegates in a call for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in [[Philadelphia]]. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until [[James Madison]] and [[Edmund Randolph]] succeeded in securing [[George Washington]]'s attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.<ref name=Milkis /><ref name="Beeman">{{Cite book |last=Beeman |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/plainhonestmenm00beem |title=Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution |publisher=Random House |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8129-7684-7 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref>

When the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance ([[Rhode Island]] did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature.<ref name=Milkis /> [[New York (state)|New York]] offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter.<ref name=Milkis /> It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] emerged.