Presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky said that when people ask her what the nation’s Founding Fathers would think of today’s political environment, she believes the Founders would wonder, “What the heck happened to Congress?”

According to Chervinsky, the Founders believed Congress would be the most powerful branch of government. As a result, they spent most of the summer in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia discussing how to deal with the threat of too much congressional power.

The executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, Chervinsky, shared her views on the Founding Fathers with urban educators at the recent Legislative/Policy Conference held by the Council of the Great City Schools in Washington, D.C. 

She noted that in the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first Constitution, there wasn't even a mention of a separate executive branch. “It was just Congress,” she said. “Congress was supposed to be the most powerful. It's supposed to be the most important, and therefore it has a lot of the most important authorities.” 

Throughout the course of history, few people willingly relinquished power, and few institutions willingly made themselves less powerful. “So, they would look at Congress today, and they could not possibly comprehend why Congress has given up so much of its authority over the other branches [of government],” said Chervinksy. 

The author of several award-winning books, including “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution,” Chervinsky believes the Founders would also be surprised about the lack of shame in today’s politics. She noted that the Founders counted on the American people serving as a critical check on all public officials, particularly through a robust sense of shame.  

“Shame is really important in a republic because if you don't care what your constituents think, then you can't really be held accountable except for moments when you're voted out of office,” said Chervinksy. 

The historian observed that the Founding Fathers expected that public officials’ determination to be viewed as a person of character would be reinforced by the American people. 

“Obviously, it’s a very different political environment that we're living in today,” she acknowledged, highlighting the notion that if a person can survive a scandal, it might as well not have happened. “That is not something that I think anyone anticipated, certainly not the Founders who were so concerned about their own honor and pride.”