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 44
Page xiii
... Ethic / 22 2. Ancients and Moderns in the Age of Pope and Swift / 29 Mandeville , Defoe , and " Modernity " / 31 Walpole and Pope / 38 Swift's Lilliputian England / 43 The Eminence of Walpole's Critics / 46 3. The Opposition Whigs and ...
... Ethic / 22 2. Ancients and Moderns in the Age of Pope and Swift / 29 Mandeville , Defoe , and " Modernity " / 31 Walpole and Pope / 38 Swift's Lilliputian England / 43 The Eminence of Walpole's Critics / 46 3. The Opposition Whigs and ...
Page 14
... ethics and politics in making moral judgments of rulers . Puritan dissenters disagreed with James's view only in their rejection of the principle that the qualities thought essential in rulers were inherently possessed by the wearer of ...
... ethics and politics in making moral judgments of rulers . Puritan dissenters disagreed with James's view only in their rejection of the principle that the qualities thought essential in rulers were inherently possessed by the wearer of ...
Page 22
... Ethic Although the exile of James II , the Acts of Settlement , and the elevation of the house of Hanover restrained the king's prerogative and ratified Whig principles of constitutional government in England , the older ideals of re ...
... Ethic Although the exile of James II , the Acts of Settlement , and the elevation of the house of Hanover restrained the king's prerogative and ratified Whig principles of constitutional government in England , the older ideals of re ...
Page 23
... ethic can be viewed as " one of the few true social novelties in history , changing the relation not only of person to person and of people to government , but also of human beings to nature . " 26 Englishmen struggled to conceptualize ...
... ethic can be viewed as " one of the few true social novelties in history , changing the relation not only of person to person and of people to government , but also of human beings to nature . " 26 Englishmen struggled to conceptualize ...
Page 24
... ethic of the age of Walpole took shape . Slowly yet perceptibly , the norms of society were shifting from a fixed amalgam of divine and natural law , ancient traditions , and a pervasive hier- archical authority toward a flux of ...
... ethic of the age of Walpole took shape . Slowly yet perceptibly , the norms of society were shifting from a fixed amalgam of divine and natural law , ancient traditions , and a pervasive hier- archical authority toward a flux of ...
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