Mirror for Presidents

Is the president bound by law? If so, how? These are historical as well as modern questions, and they are questions that the first president, George Washington, asked himself and his advisors throughout his eight-year administration. As he and they marked the boundaries of the executive under the spare text of the new federal Constitution’s Article II, they used the law of nations to fill the gaps and define key powers. Enlightenment-era jurists like Emer de Vattel intended their treatises to function as updated versions of the traditional “mirror for princes,” or advice books for European rulers, and that is how the president and his cabinet read them. Just as throughout his life he had turned to self-help books to make his way in the world, Washington turned to Vattel to learn how to govern—not just how to govern other people, but more importantly how to govern with other people at home and abroad. The early modern law of nations not only provided stage directions, showing an actor how to behave among others. It also contained working scripts to borrow. Vattel in particular emphasized jealous territorial sovereignty and open commercial intercourse, and striking the balance between them was, in Washington’s eyes, the main task of his presidency.