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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... sense of history , and hero models of the men who first gave shape to the presidency . What views did these men have about leadership , politics , and national purpose ? Their view of public life , we know , derived in part from the ...
... sense of history , and hero models of the men who first gave shape to the presidency . What views did these men have about leadership , politics , and national purpose ? Their view of public life , we know , derived in part from the ...
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... sense , to scorn electioneering and to idealize the executive as above partisan strife ? What outlook and attitudes did they share even at this moment when their political rivalry was at its height ? >> 2 When John Quincy Adams became ...
... sense , to scorn electioneering and to idealize the executive as above partisan strife ? What outlook and attitudes did they share even at this moment when their political rivalry was at its height ? >> 2 When John Quincy Adams became ...
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... sense of a national unity and destiny linked in the person of the king to the moral nature of the universe ( “ divine right " ) , and this con- tempt for disruption and sacrilege was bone deep in English consciousness and remained ...
... sense of a national unity and destiny linked in the person of the king to the moral nature of the universe ( “ divine right " ) , and this con- tempt for disruption and sacrilege was bone deep in English consciousness and remained ...
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... sense of hierarchy in society that held that some were fit to rule and some to be ruled and that every Christian had a “ calling " defining his particular niche in the divine plan . On the other hand , all privileges and ...
... sense of hierarchy in society that held that some were fit to rule and some to be ruled and that every Christian had a “ calling " defining his particular niche in the divine plan . On the other hand , all privileges and ...
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... sense of destiny and of united purpose John Foxe had heralded for En- gland in the Book of Martyrs ( 1570 ) : " No man liveth in that common- wealth where nothing is amiss . But yet because God hath so placed us En- glishmen here in one ...
... sense of destiny and of united purpose John Foxe had heralded for En- gland in the Book of Martyrs ( 1570 ) : " No man liveth in that common- wealth where nothing is amiss . But yet because God hath so placed us En- glishmen here in one ...
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