Did the Founders Agree Felons Could Be President?

First convicted felon to hold the Presidency.

If the Framers believed a convicted felon could be President, then they were not the august, sagacious and erudite men they have been mythologized as.

There is the constitutionally originalist argument of: if the Framers didn't want a felon as President, they'd have said so.

Equally valid, however, is: the Constitution was a compromise document, and the Founders never anticipated that the citizens of the nation would ever elect a convicted felon.

Though the legacies of the Framers, and our founding, are complicated, I do not believe they would support a felon as President. 

I think often about this 1814 quote from President John Adams:

"Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to Say that Democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than Aristocracy or Monarchy. It is not true in Fact and no where appears in history. Those Passions are the same in all Men under all forms of Simple Government, and when unchecked, produce the same Effects of Fraud Violence and Cruelty."

Thank you. 

Rich

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