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On Friday, June 1, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia.

And on the agenda that day was a single question, how much power should the executive branch have?

At this point, there was no executive branch yet, no president. There was only Congress.

What began to frighten the people who eventually would write the Constitution was that the government

seemed very ineffective. It was bad at running the war. It was broke. It found it very hard to

implement the law. And of course,

by the time you get into the mid-1780s, you know, people are worried.

The Revolutionary War was a fresh memory. All of the social and political workings of this

new nation essentially amounted to a big experiment. There's domestic disputes at home.

Up in Massachusetts, a bunch of former soldiers

are taking over state armories

and trying to get the legislature to forgive all their debts.

You've got British troops still stationed on American soil.

Other European powers kind of circling.

...