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 x
... whole , the other traditions important in eighteenth - century America . To understand the preconceptions about exe- cutive office of the first six presidents , then , I have looked especially for the implications and models they might ...
... whole , the other traditions important in eighteenth - century America . To understand the preconceptions about exe- cutive office of the first six presidents , then , I have looked especially for the implications and models they might ...
Page xi
... whole study . Michael Mooney , Nicholas O'Donahue , Anthony Trimarchi , and Joseph Wagner took time from their graduate studies to read and improve parts of the first four chapters . Arthur Hoffman ( English ) , Joseph Levine ( history ) ...
... whole study . Michael Mooney , Nicholas O'Donahue , Anthony Trimarchi , and Joseph Wagner took time from their graduate studies to read and improve parts of the first four chapters . Arthur Hoffman ( English ) , Joseph Levine ( history ) ...
Page xii
... whole manuscript , were able to make important suggestions about style , empha- sis , and organization . Editors and readers at the Institute of Early Ameri- can History and Culture have exceeded , it seems to me , even their usual high ...
... whole manuscript , were able to make important suggestions about style , empha- sis , and organization . Editors and readers at the Institute of Early Ameri- can History and Culture have exceeded , it seems to me , even their usual high ...
Page 8
... whole ] seeming unprepared for any decision on it . " 8 As this inconclusive beginning made clear , the Convention faced not only a wide array of options on the formal structure of executive power but also profound differences about its ...
... whole ] seeming unprepared for any decision on it . " 8 As this inconclusive beginning made clear , the Convention faced not only a wide array of options on the formal structure of executive power but also profound differences about its ...
Page 13
... whole frame of government under which this Kingdom hath flourished for many hundred years ? " " The Commons of England , " Charles warned his judges , " will not thank you for this change ; for they will remember how happy they have ...
... whole frame of government under which this Kingdom hath flourished for many hundred years ? " " The Commons of England , " Charles warned his judges , " will not thank you for this change ; for they will remember how happy they have ...
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