Powers of the President of the United States The amount of military detail handled personally by the President in wartime has varied dramatically. George Washington, the first U.S. president, firmly established military subordination under civilian authority. In 1794, Washington used his constitutional powers to assemble 12,000 militia to quell the Whiskey Rebellion—a conflict in western Pennsylvania involving armed farmers and distillers who refused to pay excise tax on spirits. According to historian Joseph Ellis, this was the "first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field", though James Madison briefly took control of artillery units in defense of Washington D.C. during the War of
American President Lines to the newly formed American President Lines. Following the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, the United States Pacific coastline now extended from Puget Sound to San Diego. When the 29th Congress passed the Mail Steamer Bill (1847), mail delivery was authorized to be routed by ship from the Eastern Seaboard to the Pacific Coast via the Isthmus of Panama, with two steamship routes operating: New York City to Chagres, Colombia on the Eastern side of the isthmus, and then a second route from Panama, Colombia to Astoria, Oregon. That same year, William Henry Aspinwall secured a 10-year government