Republican Manners, Monarchic Vigor: The Federalist Defense of Pardon Power

The US Constitution grants the president a virtually unlimited pardon power. The Ratification Debates demonstrate that disputes between Federalists and Anti-Federalists over the pardon power were based on their disagreement about separation of powers theory. Because Anti-Federalists feared that pardon power could be abused and promote monarchy, they insisted on textual restrictions (“parchment barriers”). The Federalists rejected these demands, moving beyond the Anti-Federalists’ “pure” theory of separation of powers and advocating a complex system of institutional checks and balances. This approach allowed the Federalists to show how the executive’s institutional structure not only improved the president’s use of pardon power but also helped prevent abuses. The president’s pardon power is as unlimited as the British king’s, but the Federalists insisted that it could nevertheless be safely granted to a republican magistrate because Congress could check misuse via an equally extensive power: impeachment and removal.