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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... values would lead gradually to a “ modern ” political party system . Especially before 1829 , though , they were mingled with still- potent assumptions and attitudes linked to monarchy and national co- hesiveness . The result , perhaps ...
... values would lead gradually to a “ modern ” political party system . Especially before 1829 , though , they were mingled with still- potent assumptions and attitudes linked to monarchy and national co- hesiveness . The result , perhaps ...
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... values and attitudes distinguished the Adams and Jackson presidencies ? In what way did the leader of the first modern American political party embody a new conception of executive office ? Like J. Q. Adams , James Madison and James ...
... values and attitudes distinguished the Adams and Jackson presidencies ? In what way did the leader of the first modern American political party embody a new conception of executive office ? Like J. Q. Adams , James Madison and James ...
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... values and their country as they glimpsed the staggering wealth available from expanded trade at home and abroad . In mid- seventeenth century , one of the earliest economic theorists , Thomas Mun , in a dawning sense of awe and of ...
... values and their country as they glimpsed the staggering wealth available from expanded trade at home and abroad . In mid- seventeenth century , one of the earliest economic theorists , Thomas Mun , in a dawning sense of awe and of ...
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... values . " Together they fashioned a compelling world view deeply at odds with the ethical and political ideas implicit in the thought of the seventeenth - century economists . ' The verbal power of the Augustan crit- ics , their ...
... values . " Together they fashioned a compelling world view deeply at odds with the ethical and political ideas implicit in the thought of the seventeenth - century economists . ' The verbal power of the Augustan crit- ics , their ...
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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