In stirring his countrymen to ratify the new Constitution, Alexander Hamilton urged in Federalist No. 70 that "energy in the executive" would be "a leading character in the definition of good government." It was, he argued, critical to national security and equally "essential to the steady administration of the laws." But others in Hamilton's day were less sanguine. George Mason feared that by vesting a president with so much power, "it may happen, at some future day, that he will establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic."

In...