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 63
Page ix
... conception , and we may even be unnecessarily restricted in contemplating what it might be in the last quarter of the twentieth century . Suppose , for example , that it is not entirely correct to assume that active , systematic ...
... conception , and we may even be unnecessarily restricted in contemplating what it might be in the last quarter of the twentieth century . Suppose , for example , that it is not entirely correct to assume that active , systematic ...
Page x
... conceptions of executive leadership rested on the neoclassical age of English literature , beginning with John Dryden and ending with Samuel Johnson , and par- ticularly on the world view of the great writers of the era of Joseph Addi ...
... conceptions of executive leadership rested on the neoclassical age of English literature , beginning with John Dryden and ending with Samuel Johnson , and par- ticularly on the world view of the great writers of the era of Joseph Addi ...
Page xi
... conception of the presidency . One can find in the words and deeds of each of them important agreement on posture or ... conceptions of the role of factions and parties and of what it meant to be virtuous in public life undergirded the ...
... conception of the presidency . One can find in the words and deeds of each of them important agreement on posture or ... conceptions of the role of factions and parties and of what it meant to be virtuous in public life undergirded the ...
Page xiv
... Conceptions of Party , 1770-1801 / 203 Hamiltonian Leadership : Intention and Party / 209 11. Executive Power and the Nonpartisan Ideal / 215 Executive Opportunities , 1789 / 215 Cultural Tensions and the Presidency / 218 Neither ...
... Conceptions of Party , 1770-1801 / 203 Hamiltonian Leadership : Intention and Party / 209 11. Executive Power and the Nonpartisan Ideal / 215 Executive Opportunities , 1789 / 215 Cultural Tensions and the Presidency / 218 Neither ...
Page 4
... conception of executive office ? Like J. Q. Adams , 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 ...
... conception of executive office ? Like J. Q. Adams , 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 ...
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