Pacificus vs. Helvidius: początki amerykańskiej „prezydentury imperialnej”
Pacificus v. Helvidius: Beginnings of the American ‘Imperial Presidency’

Summary/Abstract: During the American Founding era, there were two competing ways of interpreting the Constitution of the United States of America as well as two competing concepts of federalism. Within the George Washington Administration, the exponents of those competing views were, on one side, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (writing as ‘Pacificus’) and, on the other side, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (on whose behalf Congressman James Madison participated in the written debate, using the pen name ‘Helvidius’). The first public written exchange between the two opposing sides occurred on the occasion of establishing the Bank of the United States: A. Hamilton endorsed a loose interpretation of the US Constitution, whereas T. Jefferson advocated for a restrictive interpretation thereof. In this article, the author presents the second act of that dispute, the subject of which was the scope of presidential powers after G. Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793. The dispute turned out to be the beginning of the widening of the scope of presidential powers, ultimately leading to the establishment of the ‘imperial presidency’.

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