Really, I think that general taboo long predates the Declaration of Independence.

The English (later British) monarchy was never really in striking distance of absolutism, and its subjects were touchy about their rights going back to the Magna Carta.

That not only held in America, but was redoubled, since the colonists were, of course, people who were willing to accept a weaker state presence.

After the American Revolution, there were certainly individuals who believed in a stronger presidency than what eventually arose out of the Constitution, but the foundation of the country was too tied up in Enlightenment ideas of representative government and individual freedom for a real pro-dictatorship faction to emerge.

Instead, believing themselves to be the heirs of the Roman Republic, early Americans were vigilant to the point of paranoia about a new Caesar taking absolute power for himself: the epithet was cast at Washington, Hamilton, and just about everybody else.