Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avrogan.

This day, March 30th, 1796, President George Washington asserted executive privilege for the first time in U.S. history,

which I know what you're thinking most of the things that Washington did were for the first time in presidential history but nevertheless this is a big

moment because Washington had generally been willing to comply with congressional requests for his documents

and papers but on this day he drew a line and of course

course this question of executive privilege and oversight of the presidency from

Congress and others has lingered ever since all sorts of contested history and echoes and so forth there, but a very

interesting first moment and here to discuss it as always are Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly

Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.

Hello Jody. Hey there. And our special

guest for this episode is Lindsay Trevinsky presidential historian and

author of the book The Cabinet George Washington and the creation of an American institution.

Lindsay, thank you for doing this.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to be with you all.

You want to paint the picture of Washington as willing sharer of his documents before we get to

Washington as drawer of a line that has lingered ever since?

Absolutely. Well Washington had a long history of respecting congressional authority going all the way back to the revolution.

He had been very intentional about subverting military authority and his authority in particular to Congress. And while he wasn't quite as subservient once he came into the presidency

because he believed really strongly in the importance of a strong executive he

understood the importance of congressional oversight and that was a really critical role to ensuring there wasn't any bad behavior.

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