President (government title)
President is a common title for the head of state in most republics. The role of a president can vary depending on the country, with some serving as the head of government, a ceremonial figurehead, or some other distinction.
The functions exercised by a president vary according to the form of government. In parliamentary republics, they are usually, but not always, limited to those of the head of state and are a largely ceremonial role. An exception to this would be presidential-parliamentary republics, where the role of the president is more prominent and encompasses more of the functions of a head of government. The president of a semi-presidential republic has some discretionary powers, such as involvement in foreign affairs or the appointment of the head of government agencies, but they are not themselves the head of government. A leader of a one-party state may also hold the position of president for ceremonial purposes or to maintain an official state position.
Styles such as "Mr. President" or "Madam President" may apply to a person holding the title of president or presiding over certain other governmental bodies. "Mr. President" has subsequently been used by governments to refer to their heads of state. It is the conventional translation of non-English styles such as Monsieur le Président for the president of the French Republic. It also has a long history of usage as the title of the presiding officers of legislative and judicial bodies. The speaker of the House of Commons of Canada is addressed as président de la Chambre des communes in French and as Mr. Speaker or Madam Speaker in English.
History
The title president is derived from the Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit". The word "presidents" is also used in the King James Bible at Daniel 6:2 to translate the Aramaic term סָרְכִ֣ין , a word of likely Persian origin, meaning "officials", "commissioners", "overseers" or "chiefs". As such, it originally designated the officer who presides over or "sits before" a gathering and ensures that debate is conducted according to the rules of order, but today it most commonly refers to an executive official in any social organization. Early examples are from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the founding president of the Royal Society, William Brouncker, in 1660. This usage survives today in the title of such offices as "President of the Board of Trade" and "Lord President of the Council" in the United Kingdom, as well as "President of the Senate" in the United States. The officiating priest at certain Anglican religious services, too, is sometimes called the "president" in this sense.The most common modern usage is as the title of a head of state in a republic. The first usage of the word president to denote the highest official in a government was during the Commonwealth of England.
Commonwealth
, first recorded speaker of the English House of Commons in the rolls of the Parliament of England in 1376/7,, used the title, "Mr. Speaker", a precedent followed by subsequent speakers of the House of Commons.After the abolition of the monarchy, the English Council of State, whose members were elected by the House of Commons, became the executive government of the Commonwealth. The Council of State was the successor of the Privy Council, which had previously been headed by the lord president; its successor the Council of State was also headed by a lord president, the first of which was John Bradshaw. However, the lord president alone was not head of state, because that office was vested in the council as a whole.
The speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, established in 1867, is also addressed as "Monsieur le Président" or "Madame la Présidente" in French.
France
In pre-revolutionary France, the president of a Parlement evolved into a powerful magistrate, a member of the so-called noblesse de robe, with considerable judicial as well as administrative authority. The name referred to his primary role of presiding over trials and other hearings. In the 17th and 18th centuries, seats in the Parlements, including presidencies, became effectively hereditary, since the holder of the office could ensure that it would pass to an heir by paying the crown a special tax known as the paulette. The post of "first president", however, could be held by only the King's nominees. The Parlements were abolished by the French Revolution. In modern France the chief judge of a court is known as its president.By the 18th century, the president of a French parlement was addressed as "Monsieur le Président". In Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, the wife of a magistrate in a parlement is referred to as Madame la Présidente de Tourvel. The fictional name Tourvel refers not to the parlement in which the magistrate sits, but rather, in imitation of an aristocratic title, to his private estate. This influenced parliamentary usage in France. When the Second French Republic was established in 1848, "Monsieur le Président" became the title of the president of the French Republic.
United States
The modern usage of the term president to designate a single person who is the head of state of a republic can be traced directly to the United States Constitution of 1787, which created the office of president of the United States. Previous American governments had included "presidents", but these were presiding officers in the older sense, with no executive authority. It has been suggested that the executive use of the term was borrowed from early American colleges and universities, which were usually headed by a president. British universities were headed by an official called the "Chancellor" while the chief administrator held the title of "Vice-Chancellor". But America's first institutions of higher learning did not resemble a full-sized university so much as one of its constituent colleges. A number of colleges at Cambridge University featured an official called the "president". The head, for instance, of Magdalene College, Cambridge was called the master and his second the president. The first president of Harvard, Henry Dunster, had been educated at Magdalene. Some have speculated that he borrowed the term out of a sense of humility, considering himself only a temporary placeholder. The presiding official of Yale College, originally a "rector", became "president" in 1745.A common style of address for presidents, "Mr/Mrs. President", is borrowed from British Parliamentary tradition, in which the presiding Speaker of the House of Commons is referred to as "Mr/Mrs. Speaker". Coincidentally, this usage resembles the older French custom of referring to the president of a parlement as "Monsieur/Madame le Président", a form of address that in modern France applies to both the president of the Republic and to chief judges. In the United States, the title "Mr. President" is used in a number of formal instances as well: for example anyone presiding over the United States Senate is addressed as "Mr./Madam President", especially the vice president, who is the president of the Senate. Other uses of the title include presidents of state and local legislatures; however, only the president of the United States uses the title outside of formal sessions.
File:Stuart-george-washington-constable-1797.jpg|thumb|George Washington, the first president of the United States
The 1787 Constitution of the United States did not specify the manner of address for the president. When George Washington was sworn in as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789, however, the administering of the oath of office ended with the proclamation: "Long live George Washington, President of the United States." No title other than the name of the office of the executive was officially used at the inauguration. The question of a presidential title was being debated in Congress at the time, however, having become official legislative business with Richard Henry Lee's motion of April 23, 1789. Lee's motion asked Congress to consider "what titles it will be proper to annex to the offices of President and Vice President of the United Statesif any other than those given in the Constitution". Vice President John Adams, in his role as President of the United States Senate, organized a congressional committee. There Adams agitated for the adoption of the style of Highness for the president. Adams and Lee were among the most outspoken proponents of an exalted presidential title.
Others favored the variant of Electoral Highness or the lesser Excellency, the latter of which was vociferously opposed by Adams, who contended that it was far beneath the presidential dignity, as the executives of the states, some of which were also titled "President", at that time often enjoyed the style of Excellency; Adams said the president "would be leveled with colonial governors or with functionaries from German princedoms" if he were to use the style of Excellency. Adams and Richard Henry Lee both feared that cabals of powerful senators would unduly influence a weak executive, and saw an exalted title as a way of strengthening the presidency. On further consideration, Adams deemed even Highness insufficient and instead proposed that the executive, both the president and the vice president, be styled Majesty to prevent the "great danger" of an executive with insufficient dignity. Adams' efforts were met with widespread derision; Thomas Jefferson called them "the most superlatively ridiculous thing I ever heard of", while Benjamin Franklin considered it "absolutely mad".
Washington consented to the demands of James Madison and the United States House of Representatives that the title be altered to "Mr. President". Nonetheless, later "The Honorable" became the standard title of the President in formal address, and "His/Her Excellency" became the title of the president when addressed formally internationally.
Historically, the title was reserved for the incumbent president only, and was not to be used for former presidents, holding that it was not proper to use the title as a courtesy title when addressing a former president. According to the official website of the United States of America, the correct way to address a letter is to use "The Honorable John Doe" and the correct salutation is "Mr. Doe".
Once the United States adopted the title of "president" for its head of state, many other nations followed suit.