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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 58
Page viii
... James MacGregor Burns ( Leadership , 1978 ) has empha- sized the difference between a " negative liberty , " important in the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries when the need in religion , politics , and economics was for freedom ...
... James MacGregor Burns ( Leadership , 1978 ) has empha- sized the difference between a " negative liberty , " important in the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries when the need in religion , politics , and economics was for freedom ...
Page xiv
... James Madison / 113 7. The Ebb of the Republican Presidency / 124 James Monroe / 124 John Quincy Adains : Public Servant / 130 The Paradoxical President / 137 8. The Jacksonians and Leadership through Party / 141 Martin Van Buren and ...
... James Madison / 113 7. The Ebb of the Republican Presidency / 124 James Monroe / 124 John Quincy Adains : Public Servant / 130 The Paradoxical President / 137 8. The Jacksonians and Leadership through Party / 141 Martin Van Buren and ...
Page 4
... James Madison and James Monroe earlier viewed their tenures as successful in the degree to which they subdued or tran- scended partisanship . For Madison , the bitter , debilitating struggles of his first six years in office , both ...
... James Madison and James Monroe earlier viewed their tenures as successful in the degree to which they subdued or tran- scended partisanship . For Madison , the bitter , debilitating struggles of his first six years in office , both ...
Page 5
... James Burgh , and others , became the foundation of American republican ideol- ogy , erecting the barriers against tyranny needed in 1776 and marking out the first principles of government by consent . This “ radical Whig ideol- ogy ...
... James Burgh , and others , became the foundation of American republican ideol- ogy , erecting the barriers against tyranny needed in 1776 and marking out the first principles of government by consent . This “ radical Whig ideol- ogy ...
Page 8
... James Wilson “ moved that the Executive consist of a single person . " James Madison recorded , for the only time in the Convention , that a “ considerable pause ensu [ ed ] . " As members were well aware that perhaps the most difficult ...
... James Wilson “ moved that the Executive consist of a single person . " James Madison recorded , for the only time in the Convention , that a “ considerable pause ensu [ ed ] . " As members were well aware that perhaps the most difficult ...
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