Alexander Hamilton felt the president could indeed move Congress. After all, Hamilton reasoned, the government would not automatically cease functioning if an enemy army captured the capital. Why wouldn't the same principle apply in the case of a devastating natural disaster, such as a plague?
But Thomas Jefferson and James Madison disagreed and could not be budged from their position. During the formation of the federal government, they argued, individual states had been extremely wary about giving away too much of their governing power to any future president.