The familiar names are here like the often irked and occasionally irksome John Adams, the scheming Alexander Hamilton, and the prodigiously talented James "Jemmy" Madison, but so are the lesser known Edmund Randolph, John Jay, and Gouverneur Morris. Washington's choices of whom to listen to, for better and sometimes worse, were as consequential as the advice his cabinet gave. It is a story of give and take?between Washington and Congress, these men confronted questions, including the limits of executive power, that continue to raise debates today. David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler have written numerous scholarly books and articles dealing with the history of the early American republic, the Antebellum period, and the Civil War. They are the authors of the acclaimed biography HENRY CLAY: The Essential American.