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 4
... insisting on his antiparty views amid seething factional politics as intense as any in Ameri- can history . Some say this posture was hypocrisy or a cover for ineffectual leadership . How can we understand this least partisan of our ...
... insisting on his antiparty views amid seething factional politics as intense as any in Ameri- can history . Some say this posture was hypocrisy or a cover for ineffectual leadership . How can we understand this least partisan of our ...
Page 14
... insisted on qualities of leadership ad- mired for centuries . In fact , the intense , often anguished , writers about au- thority in government during the reign of James I , Anglicans as well as Puritans , agreed generally on five ...
... insisted on qualities of leadership ad- mired for centuries . In fact , the intense , often anguished , writers about au- thority in government during the reign of James I , Anglicans as well as Puritans , agreed generally on five ...
Page 15
... insisted , “ Every man must joyne the practise of his personall calling , with the practice of the generall calling of Christianity . . . . As for example . A Magistrate must not onely in generall be a Christian , as every man is , but ...
... insisted , “ Every man must joyne the practise of his personall calling , with the practice of the generall calling of Christianity . . . . As for example . A Magistrate must not onely in generall be a Christian , as every man is , but ...
Page 16
... insist that the community conform to the precepts of the Kingdom of God . John Winthrop defined this saintly obli- gation on his way to Massachusetts , aboard the Arbella , in a sermon that deliberately cast the speaker in the role of ...
... insist that the community conform to the precepts of the Kingdom of God . John Winthrop defined this saintly obli- gation on his way to Massachusetts , aboard the Arbella , in a sermon that deliberately cast the speaker in the role of ...
Page 17
... insisted that “ the care of the publique must oversway all private respects " and that " perticuler es- tates cannott subsist in the ruine of the publique . " " 1 Winthrop thus echoed the sense of destiny and of united purpose John Foxe ...
... insisted that “ the care of the publique must oversway all private respects " and that " perticuler es- tates cannott subsist in the ruine of the publique . " " 1 Winthrop thus echoed the sense of destiny and of united purpose John Foxe ...
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