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 v
... 1789-1829 Ralph Ketcham. FOR Paul Knights Marvin Wachman Philip M. Williams William T. Hutchinson Joseph Tussman Martin Diamond and , especially , Stuart Gerry Brown This page intentionally left blank Preface erhaps the most commonplace.
... 1789-1829 Ralph Ketcham. FOR Paul Knights Marvin Wachman Philip M. Williams William T. Hutchinson Joseph Tussman Martin Diamond and , especially , Stuart Gerry Brown This page intentionally left blank Preface erhaps the most commonplace.
Page vii
... especially the fashioning of a novel executive office in 1787 and afterward , took place in the presence of assumptions about leadership and party radically different from those ac- cepted as axiomatic in the era of Jackson and Peel ...
... especially the fashioning of a novel executive office in 1787 and afterward , took place in the presence of assumptions about leadership and party radically different from those ac- cepted as axiomatic in the era of Jackson and Peel ...
Page x
... especially for the implications and models they might have drawn from the cultural milieu of seventeenth- and eighteenth - century Britain . This focus does not so much reject Richard Pious's argument in The American Presidency ( 1979 ) ...
... especially for the implications and models they might have drawn from the cultural milieu of seventeenth- and eighteenth - century Britain . This focus does not so much reject Richard Pious's argument in The American Presidency ( 1979 ) ...
Page 3
... especially the presidency and political parties , took shape amid as- sumptions and aspirations not now easily given credence . To take another example , John Adams , although an earnest and prideful man , nonetheless refused to ...
... especially the presidency and political parties , took shape amid as- sumptions and aspirations not now easily given credence . To take another example , John Adams , although an earnest and prideful man , nonetheless refused to ...
Page 5
... especially , himself the instrument of a party . In fact , Washington , like the other early presidents , faced the need to devise and exemplify an executive office compatible with republican principles when virtually all precedent and ...
... especially , himself the instrument of a party . In fact , Washington , like the other early presidents , faced the need to devise and exemplify an executive office compatible with republican principles when virtually all precedent and ...
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