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
The American President he did, however, disapprove of Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins' decision to cast Douglas and Sheen in the same film and especially in similar roles within that film, expressing the worry that the similarity between the two actors' appearances would lead audiences to confuse their respective characters. The screenplay for the film inspired many aspects of Sorkin's later television drama "The West Wing". The two productions follow the staff of a largely idealized White House, and like many of Sorkin's projects, share ideologies. Even the set of the Oval Office in "The American President" was later used in "The West