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 iv
... United States of America 04 03 02 ΟΙ 8 7 6 5 4 Library of Congress Cataloging - in - Publication Data Ketcham ... United States - History . 2. Executive power - United States - History . 3. Political science— United States - History . 4 ...
... United States of America 04 03 02 ΟΙ 8 7 6 5 4 Library of Congress Cataloging - in - Publication Data Ketcham ... United States - History . 2. Executive power - United States - History . 3. Political science— United States - History . 4 ...
Page vii
... united and actuated by some com- mon impulse of passion , or of interest , adverse . . . to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community . " Similarly , Washington warned in his Farewell Address ( 1796 ) against the peril of ...
... united and actuated by some com- mon impulse of passion , or of interest , adverse . . . to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community . " Similarly , Washington warned in his Farewell Address ( 1796 ) against the peril of ...
Page viii
... United States . Nor is it surprising that Hofstadter sees " the gradual acceptance of parties and of the system of a recognized partisan opposition " as “ a net gain in the sophistication of political thought and practice over the ...
... United States . Nor is it surprising that Hofstadter sees " the gradual acceptance of parties and of the system of a recognized partisan opposition " as “ a net gain in the sophistication of political thought and practice over the ...
Page ix
... - tive history of the United States , and the career and public philosophy of each of the first six presidents . Indeed , the growth of the presidency into what often has been called “ the most powerful office Preface ix.
... - tive history of the United States , and the career and public philosophy of each of the first six presidents . Indeed , the growth of the presidency into what often has been called “ the most powerful office Preface ix.
Page 7
... United States would have to be fashioned within important limits , but it also carried , in the prevailing but not always con- sistent implications of the theories of Locke , Montesquieu , and Sir Wil- liam Blackstone , " a broadly ...
... United States would have to be fashioned within important limits , but it also carried , in the prevailing but not always con- sistent implications of the theories of Locke , Montesquieu , and Sir Wil- liam Blackstone , " a broadly ...
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