“First, it is crucial to recognize that Washington’s extraordinary reputation rested less on his prudent exercise of power than on his dramatic flair at surrendering it. He was, in fact, a veritable virtuoso of exits.” — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“Perhaps, in that eerily instinctive way in which he always grasped the difference between the essential and the peripheral, he literally felt in his bones that another term as president meant that he would die in office. By retiring when he did, he avoided that fate, which would have established a precedent that smacked of monarchical longevity by permitting biology… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share
“Upon learning that Washington intended to reject the mantle of emperor, no less an authority than George III allegedly observed, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.” True to his word, on December 22, 1783, Washington surrendered his commission to the Congress, then meeting in Annapolis: “Having now finished the work assigned me,” he… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share
“The Adams presidency, in fact, might be the classic example of the historical truism that inherited circumstances define the parameters within which presidential leadership… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“p. 274 ...his trademark decision to surrender power as commander in chief and then president, was not...a sign that he had conquered his ambitions, but rather that he fully realized that all ambitions were inherently insatiable and unconquerable. He knew himself well enough to resist the illusion that he transcended human nature. Unlike Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell before him,… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share
To my three sons, Peter, Scott, and Alexander who pulled me from the 18th Century and back into the present on a regular basis… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“They recognized from the beginning that they were a rare match. There were so many topics they could talk about easily and just as… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
[quoting someone else] the American constitution is a document designed by geniuses to be eventually interpreted by idiots — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“The first symptom of the trouble appeared when Madison studied Hamilton’s proposal for the funding of the domestic debt. On the one hand, Hamilton’s recommendation looked straightforward: All citizens who owned government securities should be reimbursed at par—that is, the full value of the government’s original promise. But many original holders of the securities, mainly veterans of the American Revolution… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share
“But if insecurity was the primal source of Hamilton's incredibly energy, one would have to conclude that providence had conspired to produce at the… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“One of the petitioners, an infamous do-gooder of uncertain sanity named Warner Mifflin, had actually acknowledged that his antislavery vision came to him after… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
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