Making the Presidency

An authoritative account of the second president of the United States that shows how John Adams's leadership and legacy defined the office for those who followed and ensured the survival of the American republic. The United States of 1797 faced enormous challenges, provoked by enemies foreign and domestic. The father of the new nation, George Washington, left his vice president, John Adams, with relatively little guidance and impossible expectations to meet. Adams was confronted with intense partisan divides, debates over citizenship, fears of political violence, potential for foreign conflict with France and Britain, and a nation unsure that the presidency could even work without Washington at the helm. Making the Presidency is an authoritative exploration of the second US presidency, a period critical to the survival of the American republic. Through meticulous research and engaging prose, Lindsay Chervinsky illustrates the unique challenges faced by Adams and shows how he shaped the office for his successors. One of the most qualified presidents in American history, he had been a legislator, political theorist, diplomat, minister, and vice president--but he had never held an executive position. Instead, the quixotic and stubborn Adams would rely on his ideas about executive power, the Constitution, politics, and the state of the world to navigate the hurdles of the position. He defended the presidency from his own often obstructionist cabinet, protected the nation from foreign attacks, and forged trust and dedication to election integrity and the peaceful transfer of power between parties, even though it cost him his political future. Offering a portrait of one of the most fascinating and influential periods in US history, Making the Presidency is a must-read for anyone interested in the evolution of the presidency and the creation of political norms and customs at the heart of the American republic.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky is Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. She is the author of award-winning The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution and the co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. Dr. Chervinsky was a historian at the White House Historical Association. She regularly writes for public audiences in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, USA Today, CNN.com, Washington Monthly, and the Washington Post and is frequent presidential commentator on national TV and radio. Chervinsky lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

A Note on Language IntroductionChapter One: An Address to the People of the United StatesChapter Two: Washington RecedesChapter Three: The Die Is CastChapter Four: The "Sublimest Thing" Ever Exhibited in AmericaChapter Five: A Scene of AmbitionChapter Six: A Dishonorable InfidelityChapter Seven: Expect Nothing but the Most Unqualified InjusticeChapter Eight: Not a Sixpence!Chapter Nine: Poured in from All QuartersChapter Ten: Massacre the InhabitantsChapter Eleven: Decisive MeasuresChapter Twelve: The "Majic" of His NameChapter Thirteen: The Tocsin of InsurrectionChapter Fourteen: All Evidence That They Are SincereChapter Fifteen: Solely the President's ActChapter Sixteen: Struck by a ThunderboltChapter Seventeen: The Spirit in the City is Very HighChapter Eighteen: A Paltry InsurrectionChapter Nineteen: The Air of AbdicationChapter Twenty: The Apple of Discord to the FederalistsChapter Twenty-One: The Late President of the United States, Is No More!Chapter Twenty-Two: Their Gag in My MouthChapter Twenty-Three: Hocus-Pocus ManeuversChapter Twenty-Four: A Change in the AdministrationChapter Twenty-Five: The Seat of GovernmentChapter Twenty-Six: Death or LibertyChapter Twenty-Seven: The Unqualified Conviction of His Unfitness for the StationChapter Twenty-Eight: Storms of a New CharacterChapter Twenty-Nine: Nothing but a Forest and Woods Along the WayChapter Thirty: The Prey of Anarchy and FactionChapter Thirty-One: The New Order of Things BeginsEpilogue: May None but Honest and Wise Men AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex