Question

What limited the early presidents

Answer 1

One of the great limiting factors of the early presidents is that no one had ever done this before. There was no instances of presidents in any country, and this was a brand new system , so few people knew what they were doing. 

Another major problem was power, if you go back to the articles of Confederation. The Federal Government, including the president needed enough power to change things, but the State needed enough power to prevent another monarch, like Britain, whom they had recently become independent from.