Didn’t Washington get hauled out of retirement by President Adams to lead the army? Seems he was technically never taken off the retired list. Perhaps not an issue if he worked for free?
Is there really? It was only the mention of Grant that made me think of the obvious example: Gen. George B. McClellan:
Which also brings up Winfield Scott as well:
Holding a government job used to be considered a political duty. Government employees were not only allowed, but were expected, to campaign for their party’s nominees. It was reforms of the Progressive era that tried to create a politically neutral civil service and enacted laws which restricted how government employees could influence elections.
Post #9.
We didn’t have a standing army then, and he had to be commissioned again in any event.
Article 2, Section 1.
“The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”
In other words, the only federal or state job a President can have, is being President. Not military officer, civil service employee, member of Congress or anything else.
But couldn’t that problem be met by having the President irrevocably renounce the military salary for the duration of his term? If not, then the Presidency would be barred to anyone who has either a federal or state pension at the time they seek election.
For instance, was Ronald Reagan eligible for a pension from California for his service as governor, when he was elected at age 69?
The traditional position of the White House has been that pensions do not constitute an “emolument.” I don’t think the precise definition has ever really been tested.
Well, except for the part about* current * regulation not allowing active-duty personnel to run and serve in elected political positions, or to remain in active status but unpaid and off-duty while detached to hold an elected political position. A military (wo)man this day can transition to reserves or go into retirement , whichever was eligible, by the start of Primary Season, and not have to bother with exotic workarounds.
In the usage of the time, emolument was basically a synonym for compensation as we’d use the term today: wages/salary and incidentals. So a pension probably wouldn’t qualify. Sure, it’s a payment for work done, but the point is that it had already long since vested by the time he became POTUS. He didn’t have to do anything to receive it.
You are completely forgetting the even more obvious case of Zachary Taylor, who WON. (He didn’t even know he was running until late in the race: the letter from the Whig convention telling him he was nominated arrived postage due, and he sent it back.)