“In Jefferson's mind great historical leaps forward were almost always the product of a purging, which freed societies from the accumulated debris of the past and thereby allowed the previously obstructed natural forces to flow forward into the future. Simplicity… — 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… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“Upon learning that Washington intended to reject the mantle of emperor, no less an authority than George III allegedly observed, “If he does that,… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“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,… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
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… — Joseph J. Ellis Copy Share Image
“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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