Historians weigh in on this at the Washington Post. Here is a passage from the Anti-Federalists, who opposed the Constitution — this is about their fear of the new office of the President:

… We may also suppose, without trespassing upon the bounds of probability, that this man may not have the means of supporting, in private life, the dignity of his former station; that like Caesar, he may be at once ambitious and poor, and deeply involved in debt. Such a man would die a thousand deaths rather than sink from the heights of splendor and power, into obscurity and wretchedness.”