Opinion by Mathew Carr

BBC is reporting President Trump will decide whether or not to engage Iran in war — this seems against the founding fathers.

Americans need to speak out for power to decide what its president does.

Remember Hamilton, Jefferson.

Grok (unchecked):

The American people don’t have a direct right to determine whether the U.S. goes to war. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war (Article I, Section 8), while the President, as Commander-in-Chief (Article II, Section 2), can initiate military action.

In practice, presidents often engage in military conflicts without formal declarations of war, citing executive authority or international obligations (e.g., NATO, UN resolutions). The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops and limits military engagement to 60 days without congressional approval, but its enforcement is shaky and often ignored.

Public opinion can influence decisions through political pressure—elections, protests, or media—but there’s no legal mechanism for a direct public vote on war. Some argue this setup protects national security by avoiding slow, populist decision-making; others say it sidelines democratic accountability. Historically, wars like Vietnam and Iraq sparked massive public debate, but the decision rested with elected officials, not a referendum.

The Founding Fathers didn’t explicitly address whether the American people should have a direct say in declaring war, but their writings and the Constitution they crafted provide insight into their views. They designed a system balancing democratic input with structured governance, wary of both mob rule and unchecked executive power.

• Constitutional Framework: The Constitution (1787) assigns the power to declare war to Congress (Article I, Section 8), reflecting the Founders’ intent to keep war-making authority with elected representatives, not the people directly or a single executive. James Madison, in the Federalist Papers (No. 41), argued that war powers should rest with the legislature because it’s closer to the people and less prone to impulsive decisions than a president. He saw this as a safeguard against tyranny, drawing from their experience with King George III’s unilateral actions.
• Madison’s Views: In his 1793 “Helvidius” letters, Madison emphasized that war decisions should involve the people’s representatives, not just the executive, to prevent rash conflicts. He wrote, “In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department.”
• Hamilton’s Perspective: Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 69, acknowledged the President’s role as Commander-in-Chief but stressed it’s subordinate to Congress’s authority to declare war. He contrasted this with the British monarchy, where the king could unilaterally wage war, noting the U.S. system requires “the consent of the representatives of the people.”
• Jefferson’s Caution: Thomas Jefferson, in a 1789 letter to Madison, expressed concern about giving any single branch too much power over war, advocating for checks and balances. He believed the people’s will should be reflected through Congress, not direct votes, as he distrusted pure democracy’s volatility (seen in his skepticism of “mob rule” in other writings).
• Anti-Federalist Concerns: Some Anti-Federalists, like Patrick Henry, worried even Congress might be too detached from the people. They pushed for stronger state and local control, but their views didn’t win out. They still didn’t advocate for direct public votes on war, fearing instability.

The Founders were skeptical of direct democracy, favoring a republic where elected officials filter public sentiment. They saw Congress as the conduit for the people’s voice, not referendums. Their debates during the Constitutional Convention (1787) show they deliberately avoided giving the President sole war-making power, learning from European monarchies, but also didn’t trust the masses to decide complex foreign policy directly.

If you want specific quotes from more Founders or a deeper dive into their debates, let me know, or I can check X for modern takes on their views.

Here are direct quotes from key Founding Fathers on the matter of war powers, focusing on their views about the roles of Congress, the executive, and the people’s indirect influence through representatives, as they didn’t advocate for direct public votes on war:

• James Madison:
  • In Letters of Helvidius, No. 1 (1793): “In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. Beside the objection to such a mixture of heterogeneous powers: the trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man.”
  • In Federalist No. 41 (1788): “The power of declaring war… is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature… The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind… to the sole disposal of a single magistrate.”
• Alexander Hamilton:
  • In Federalist No. 69 (1788): “The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States… [This] would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces… while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war and to the raising and regulating of fleets and armies—all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.”
  • In Federalist No. 74 (1788): “The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength, forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.”
• Thomas Jefferson:
  • In a letter to James Madison (September 6, 1789): “We have already given in example one effectual check to the Dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay.”
  • In a letter to William Short (October 31, 1801): “The people, through their representatives in Congress, are alone competent to the declaration of war.”
• John Adams:
  • In a letter to the Boston Patriot (1809): “I have always been of opinion, that the great questions of peace and war ought not to be left to the will of a single man… but that the representatives of the people in Congress assembled, ought to have a controlling power over them.”
• George Washington:
  • In a letter to William Moultrie (August 28, 1793): “The Constitution vests the power of declaring war with Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject, and authorized such a measure.”

These quotes reflect the Founders’ consensus that war powers should primarily rest with Congress, as the body representing the people, rather than the President or direct public votes. They distrusted centralized executive power (drawing from their experience with the British monarchy) and saw the legislative process as a way to filter the people’s will through deliberation, not direct democracy. None explicitly called for the public to have a direct vote on war, emphasizing instead the role of elected representatives.