By constitutional standards, that is…
While a great president in many ways, George Washington committed two significant transgressions against the US Constitution.
- During the Whiskey Rebellion, Washington sent the army into the sovereign state of Pennsylvania without the permission of Pennsylvania’s governor and without authorization from congress, setting a precedent for future presidents to use military force outside the limits of the Constitution.
- In 1793, Washington unilaterally declared the US as neutral in the conflict between France and Great Britain. This was a wise idea, but was a usurpation of the authority of congress who is given the sole duty to make declarations of war, and therefore also declarations of peace, under the Constitution.
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