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 x
... admired models , what warning examples , what fears and aspirations did they carry with them into the chief magistracy ? To answer these questions we must probe for the largely unstated val- ues , preconceptions , sense of history , and ...
... admired models , what warning examples , what fears and aspirations did they carry with them into the chief magistracy ? To answer these questions we must probe for the largely unstated val- ues , preconceptions , sense of history , and ...
Page 3
... admire an Au- gustan nobleman above Whig parliamentarians ? These paradoxes , in fact , reveal that Jefferson had a view of free government significantly different from that common today and suggest that early American political institu ...
... admire an Au- gustan nobleman above Whig parliamentarians ? These paradoxes , in fact , reveal that Jefferson had a view of free government significantly different from that common today and suggest that early American political institu ...
Page 18
... admire . Winthrop , Nehemiah - like , had led his people back to the promised land and was in other ways comparable to the Old Testament hero revered for his personal goodness and justice as well as for his practical skill and diligence ...
... admire . Winthrop , Nehemiah - like , had led his people back to the promised land and was in other ways comparable to the Old Testament hero revered for his personal goodness and justice as well as for his practical skill and diligence ...
Page 30
... admired for both style and content regardless of political coloration , in many ways Pope and Swift loomed largest . Hence , when Americans found on the title page of the Essay on Man that it was dedicated to Bolingbroke and read in the ...
... admired for both style and content regardless of political coloration , in many ways Pope and Swift loomed largest . Hence , when Americans found on the title page of the Essay on Man that it was dedicated to Bolingbroke and read in the ...
Page 31
... admire the policy and conduct of one's country . This conception of citizenship , derived by the English neoclassical writ- ers from the Renaissance humanists , hearkened to the sternest Spartan ideals of disinterestedness . Not only ...
... admire the policy and conduct of one's country . This conception of citizenship , derived by the English neoclassical writ- ers from the Renaissance humanists , hearkened to the sternest Spartan ideals of disinterestedness . Not only ...
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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Common terms and phrases
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