The Harry S. Truman Library as a Center for Research on the American Presidency

WHEN George Washington, having turned over the presidential office to John Adams, left Philadelphia on March 9, 1797, to travel, as he put it, "through mud and mire to reach more tranquil scenes at Mount Vemon"1 he took with him, along with his other chattels, the files he had accumulated during eight years' service as chief executive, thus setting a precedent which was to be followed by each of his successors. In so doing the Father of his Country did nothing improper or illegal. The presidency is unique in that, with the exception of the vicepresidency, it is the only office in the executive branch of the government to have been created by the Constitution and not by statute. For this reason presidential papers have a privileged status. They are confidential files, intimately involved in the presidential decision-making process. To consider them part of the official public record would run counter to the concept of a government based on a separation of powers, which lies at the very heart of the American Constitution. The validity of this thesis is attested by the fact that the right of an outgoing president to take his files with him has never been successfully challenged in the courts. The shipment of Washington's papers from Philadelphia to Mount .Vernon re-