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
... Madison's definition of faction was any group , minority or majority , " who are united and actuated by some com- mon impulse of passion , or of interest , adverse . . . to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community ...
... Madison's definition of faction was any group , minority or majority , " who are united and actuated by some com- mon impulse of passion , or of interest , adverse . . . to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community ...
Page x
... Madison , Monroe , and the Adamses hear- kened all their lives to these Augustan giants , accepting not so much their explicit politics as their evocation of the admired , civilized , moral life . Since this view , moreover , was also ...
... Madison , Monroe , and the Adamses hear- kened all their lives to these Augustan giants , accepting not so much their explicit politics as their evocation of the admired , civilized , moral life . Since this view , moreover , was also ...
Page xiv
... 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 the New ...
... 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 the New ...
Page 4
... 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 within his ...
... 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 within his ...
Page 5
... Madison , the " Glorious Revolution of 1688 " had issued in a master- piece of balanced government protecting liberty to a degree unrivaled any- where in the world . The touchstone was the limitation placed on the exer- cise of ...
... Madison , the " Glorious Revolution of 1688 " had issued in a master- piece of balanced government protecting liberty to a degree unrivaled any- where in the world . The touchstone was the limitation placed on the exer- cise of ...
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