Presidents Above Party: The First American Presidency, 1789-1829George Washington's vision was a presidency free of party, a republican, national office that would transcend faction. That vision would remain strong in the administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, yet largely disappear under Andrew Jackson and his successors. This book is a comprehensive and pathbreaking study of the early presidency and the ideals behind it. Ralph Ketcham examines the roots of nonpartisan leadership in Western thought and the particular influences on the founding fathers. Intellectual and political profiles of the first six presidents and their administrations emphasize the construction each put on the office, the challenges he faced, and the compromises he did and did not make. The erosion of nonpartisanship under Andrew Jackson is presented as a counterpoint that helps define the early presidency and the permanent transition from it. Addressing the thoughtful citizen as well as the scholar, the author poses the fundamental questions about presidential leadership, then and now. The best study of the early presidency, this book is an intellectual portrait of the age that will challenge received notions of American history. |
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Page vii
... Jackson and Peel , Lincoln and Gladstone , Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill , or Lyndon Johnson and Harold Wilson . Yet , the hostility of the early presidents to party and their earnest inten- tion to be nonpartisan executives ...
... Jackson and Peel , Lincoln and Gladstone , Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill , or Lyndon Johnson and Harold Wilson . Yet , the hostility of the early presidents to party and their earnest inten- tion to be nonpartisan executives ...
Page x
... no means attuned to the diversified , competitive , brokering public style dominant in Anglo- America from Peel and Jackson onward . The first six American presidents , that is , were caught — creatively in many respects X Preface.
... no means attuned to the diversified , competitive , brokering public style dominant in Anglo- America from Peel and Jackson onward . The first six American presidents , that is , were caught — creatively in many respects X Preface.
Page xi
... Jackson , that transformed American public life and gave it the dynamic that has ever since characterized it . As a way of clarify- ing the " premodern ” view of the early presidents , I have tried to explain this contrast with some ...
... Jackson , that transformed American public life and gave it the dynamic that has ever since characterized it . As a way of clarify- ing the " premodern ” view of the early presidents , I have tried to explain this contrast with some ...
Page 4
... Jackson presidencies ? In what way did the leader of the first modern American political party embody a new conception of executive office ? Like J. Q. Adams , James Madison and James Monroe earlier viewed their tenures as successful in ...
... Jackson presidencies ? In what way did the leader of the first modern American political party embody a new conception of executive office ? Like J. Q. Adams , James Madison and James Monroe earlier viewed their tenures as successful in ...
Page 29
... Jackson and the intellectual age of Ralph Waldo Emerson . The " influence " of the moral and literary tradition of Pope , Swift , and other Augustan writers in English America during the eighteenth century is not difficult to discern ...
... Jackson and the intellectual age of Ralph Waldo Emerson . The " influence " of the moral and literary tradition of Pope , Swift , and other Augustan writers in English America during the eighteenth century is not difficult to discern ...
Contents
3 | |
11 | |
The American Presidency 17891837 | 87 |
Republican Dilemmas Virtue and Commerce Leadership and Party | 163 |
Notes | 237 |
Index | 261 |
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Abigail Adams accepted Adams's administration admired Alexander Pope American Revolution ancient Augustan Bernard Mandeville Bolingbroke Britain British Buren Cato century Charles Francis Adams Classical colonies commercial common conception Congress Constitution Convention corruption cultural Daniel Defoe defended Defoe democratic Dunciad early presidents economic eighteenth eighteenth-century election England English ethic executive power faction Federal Federalist Franklin George Hamilton ibid idea ideal ideology insisted J. Q. Adams Jackson Jacksonian James Madison Jeffersonian John Adams John Quincy Adams John Winthrop Jonathan Swift legislative legislature liberty Mandeville ment modern monarch Monroe moral nation Number opposition Parliament partisan partisanship patriot king patriot leader Pitt Plutarch political parties president's principles prosperity public philosophy Puritan quoted radical Whig republic republican Revolutionary role rulers scorned self-interest sense six presidents society sought spirit Thomas Jefferson thought tion Tory trade traditional United virtue virtuous Walpole Walpole's Walpolean Washington wealth Wilson Writings wrote York