“In other words, Julia still believed in the beneficial effects of tobacco long after her husband had likely died from it. Even… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Mocking Hancock as an inexperienced political lightweight, Republicans printed up a pamphlet entitled “Hancock’s Political Achievements,” a work that contained nothing but… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
Politics boils down to the stories we tell ourselves. And unfortunately, we tell ourselves different stories. — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“For Washington, parties weren’t so much expressions of popular politics as their negation, denying the true will of the people as expressed… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“In the end, nobody would do more than Alexander Hamilton to infuse life into this parchment and make it the working mandate… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“If Madison in the 1780s was a philosopher king, Madison in the 1790s was a formidable practicing politician, and so skillful at… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Hamilton warned that “a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“in the end he required political pull to do so. After years of wandering, Grant had popped up in the right congressional… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Johnson had unleashed the political equivalent of an act of war against Congress. Retaliating against the president’s violation of the Tenure of… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“he warned that progressive accumulation of debt “is perhaps the NATURAL DISEASE of all Governments. And it is not easy to conceive… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Clearly, the U.S. government condoned something that, in modern phraseology, could be termed industrial espionage. Building upon this precedent, Hamilton put the… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Rawlins let loose a stemwinder of a speech that lasted forty-five minutes. His voice throbbing with emotion, he thundered, “I have been… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Whoever considers the nature of our government with discernment will see that though obstacles and delays will frequently stand in the way… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“This was a powerful argument for Washington, who had gone to Philadelphia feeling that the war would be incomplete without a new… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“The feckless President Buchanan, who opposed secession, thought the federal government powerless to stop it, and in his last annual message blamed… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“bolstered southern power by scrapping the rule that had once counted an African American as only three-fifths of a person for electoral… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“He cleverly assumed that he was addressing loyal people and made common cause with them: I have come among you, not as… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“The American Revolution and its aftermath coincided with two great transformations in the late eighteenth century. In the political sphere, there had… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“The world of politics was filled with duplicitous people and Grant was poorly equipped to spot them, remaining an easy victim for… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Four Millions of people heretofore declared by the highest tribunal in the land, not citizens of the United States, nor eligible to… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“In other words, Julia still believed in the beneficial effects of tobacco long after her husband had likely died from it. Even grimacing with… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Right before his inauguration, he received a Quaker delegation and asked them to nominate Indian agents from their members. “If you can make Quakers… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Grant roomed with Fred Dent, who also singled out Grant as “the clearest headed young man I ever saw . . . He always wanted to do… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
The richly cadenced prose is hypnotic, the research prodigious, the analysis acute, the mood spellbinding, and the cast of characters mythic in scale. I… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Hamilton has often been extolled as the exponent of a rational foreign policy based on cool calculations of national self-interest. But his April 14… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“While the folks at home embraced him as an improbable hero, Washington was denigrated in England as a reckless young warrior and in France… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“the immorality of slavery became patently clear that spring. He had acquired from Colonel Dent the mulatto slave named William Jones who had worked… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“As his life steadily unraveled, he pawned his gold watch and chain for $20 on December 23, 1857, to purchase Christmas presents for his… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Grant had overwhelmingly won the electoral vote, and had garnered the largest popular majority of the century, nearly 56 percent of the vote, the… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“The chief quartermaster on the West Coast, Robert Allen, an old friend of Grant’s, learned he was holed up in a cheap miner’s hotel… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“Returning to his Manhattan town house on Christmas Eve, Grant, sixty-one, pivoted to hand the driver a holiday tip when he slipped on the… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
“When he bet Julia that she wouldn’t dare to descend into the mine, located seventeen hundred feet below, it roused her fighting spirit and… — Ron Chernow Copy Share Image
