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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Results 1-5 of 59
Page ix
... common judgment that it is impractical for an effective presi- dent to be , even in the Oval Office , anything other than a zealous party leader , go unchallenged ? Do we need to accept it as natural and proper , as happened in 1978 ...
... common judgment that it is impractical for an effective presi- dent to be , even in the Oval Office , anything other than a zealous party leader , go unchallenged ? Do we need to accept it as natural and proper , as happened in 1978 ...
Page xiv
... Common People of America / 181 10. Alexander Hamilton and the Ideas of Leadership and Party / 188 Commerce and National Greatness / 188 Classical Ideas of Leadership / 193 Executive Transcendence of Faction / 198 Anglo - American ...
... Common People of America / 181 10. Alexander Hamilton and the Ideas of Leadership and Party / 188 Commerce and National Greatness / 188 Classical Ideas of Leadership / 193 Executive Transcendence of Faction / 198 Anglo - American ...
Page 3
... common today and suggest that early American political institu- tions , especially the presidency and political parties , took shape amid as- sumptions and aspirations not now easily given credence . To take another example , John Adams ...
... common today and suggest that early American political institu- tions , especially the presidency and political parties , took shape amid as- sumptions and aspirations not now easily given credence . To take another example , John Adams ...
Page 7
... common law of Nature a right to make use of it for the good of the society . " This discretionary power Locke termed prerogative , which was " the power of doing public good without a rule ” ( that is , without specific law ; Locke's ...
... common law of Nature a right to make use of it for the good of the society . " This discretionary power Locke termed prerogative , which was " the power of doing public good without a rule ” ( that is , without specific law ; Locke's ...
Page 8
... common consent , the Committee [ of the whole ] seeming unprepared for any decision on it . " 8 As this inconclusive beginning made clear , the Convention faced not only a wide array of options on the formal structure of executive power ...
... common consent , the Committee [ of the whole ] seeming unprepared for any decision on it . " 8 As this inconclusive beginning made clear , the Convention faced not only a wide array of options on the formal structure of executive power ...
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