George Washington: An Image and Its Influence

David Gordon

George Washington took office as president in 1789 with an asset of inestimable value. People viewed him as the hero of the American Revolution who, disdaining power, had like the Roman general Cincinnatus returned home to his farm. When he allowed himself, with great reluctance, to be nominated as chief executive, his prestige was unparalleled. Indeed, his reputation was worldwide. When he died,

Thomas Jefferson: Classical-Liberal Statesman of the Old Republic

H. Arthur Scott Trask

Was Thomas Jefferson a great president? One’s answer to that question depends on how one defines “greatness.” If we define greatness as how far a president leads the United States down its historically determined path toward the centralized interventionist state, then Jefferson fails to qualify.

Supreme Court as Accomplice: Judicial Backing for a Despotic Presidency

Marshall L. DeRosa

Commencing Demagogues, Ending Tyrants

Despotism was a paramount concern of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, particularly executive despotism. In their minds, it was a phenomenon that would surely become manifest if favorable circumstances were to arise; hence, their distrust of a unitary democracy headed by a strong chief executive.

The Electoral College as a Restraint on American Democracy: Its Evolution from Washington to Jackson

Randall G. Holcombe

When the American colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776, the fundamental principle underlying the new government they created was the principle of liberty. To the Founders, liberty meant freedom from government oppression, because at that time, government was the primary threat to the liberty of individuals.

Martin Van Buren: The American Gladstone

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

President Martin Van Buren does not usually receive high marks from historians. Born of humble Dutch ancestry in December 1782 in the small upstate New York village of Kinderhook, Van Buren gained admittance to the bar in 1803 without benefit of higher education.

Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Mercantilism

Thomas J. DiLorenzo

I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a national bank . . . in favor of the internal improvements system and a high protective tariff.

—Abraham Lincoln, 1832

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln and the First Shot: A Study of Deceit and Deception

John V. Denson

In almost every poll of public opinion or assessment by professional historians which has been published since World War II, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt rank in the top three as two of our “greatest.”1 Arthur M.

President Andrew Johnson: Tribune of States’ Rights

H. Arthur Scott Trask and Carey Roberts

During the first half of the twentieth century, most American historians regarded Andrew Johnson as a courageous and strong-willed politician who defended the prerogatives and independent position of the presidency from a usurping Congress. Defenders of the imperial presidency saw in Johnson a strong leader.

William McKinley: Architect of the American Empire

Joseph R. Stromberg

Papa met José Martí in Key West, and admired his Cuban Revolutionary Party, but he says we should not fool ourselves about our interests. He hates the Spaniards as sincerely as the next man, but says the U.S. picked this fight in Cuba, Maine or no Maine, it’s just an excuse to clean Spain out of our hemisphere once and for all, and grab the Philippines and Puerto Rico while we’re at it.

Theodore Roosevelt and the Modern Presidency

Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

In 1896, Brooks Adams wrote a book called The Law of Civilization and Decay. Like most late-nineteenth-century commentators, he believed that his country was nearing a watershed in its history. But unless America rallied around a strong leader, the center of world power, which he thought might be about to shift from England to the United States, would shift instead to Russia.