ABSTRACT
Alexander Hamilton’s proposal for an elective monarchy met with deafening silence at the Constitutional Convention. The idea of one man heading the executive branch of the government, appointing the judicial branch and commanding the military scared the dickens out of some members of the convention, who considered it all too easy for a president to crown himself king. The Electoral College method of electing the president was a mishmash of various strategies that were discussed. The Virginia Plan included a seven-year term for the president, who would then be ineligible for re-election. The Virginia Plan called for a special Council of Revision, composed of the president and some members of the judiciary, which would have absolute veto power. The issue of state-federal relations, and of the relative power of small states, was a powder keg threatening the whole project.
