Our First Real War
Green Bag, Vol. 2, p. 169, 1999
10 Pages Posted: 12 Jul 2010
Date Written: February 1, 1999
Abstract
The Framers generally recognized the need for executive power to engage in military actions to repel foreign invasion or for other emergency purposes. Although Jefferson usually spoke in terms of strict interpretation of the Constitution and a restricted view of executive power, his actions demonstrated that in matters of war and foreign affairs, the niceties of formalism must sometimes be trumped by the necessities of governing – even when the situation might not rise to the level of an emergency. As Jefferson himself said, “What is practicable must often control what is pure theory.”
Keywords: Jefferson, war powers, constitution law, founders, originalism, Tripoli, barbary, pirates, enterprise, Tripolitan war
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