Reviews for The olive branch, or, Faults on both sides, federal and democratic

The average rating for The olive branch, or, Faults on both sides, federal and democratic based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-10-16 00:00:00 Perry McLaughlin Adams' history is a must read to understand how fragile the United States was in its infancy during the administration of Thomas Jefferson, who is among the most complex of the Founding Fathers. This book reveals how he made political choices that both contradicted and confirmed his philosophical convictions. Although it was written almost a century and a half ago, Adams prose is comprehensive, relevant, and, especially in the first part, peppered with profound wit. Three compelling episodes of the Jefferson administration highlight, in my opinion, this wide-ranging history. First, the story of the Louisiana Purchase. Adams deftly describes how Jefferson immediatly grasped the long-term opportunity and value of doubling the size of the nation as well as how Jefferson's pragmatism trumped his belief in a limited national government. The subsequent political intrigue to define the borders of the Purchase is a story that has been largely lost, but thanks to Adams we have a substantial record to draw upon. The story of Aaron Burr's attempt to build a western empire is riveting. It is hard for us in the present day United States to understand how so many treasonous mercenaries could actually have changed the course of history but for a few resolute individuals combined with the mendacity of the key players. New to me was Andrew Jackson's limited role and how quickly he switched when it was apparent that Burr would fail. Most profound is Adams' description of Jefferson's theory of peaceable coercion and how he tried to put it into practice. Rather than going to war with England and Napoleon's France over rights of sea passage and economic coercion, the Jefferson administration pushed Congress to enact a comprehensive embargo to change their policies and open up trade. The economic cost to the American population was great. Going to war would have been the cheaper option, but at what cost of American lives? It is a question that has been asked by every subsequent generation, but Jefferson was the only president willing to ask the citizens of the nation to remain firmly opposed to war by enacting economic policies that required personal sacrifice. Although it was ultimately overturned, one cannot help but admire Jefferson's intent. In not going to war, he may have been the most courageous commander in chief this nation has had. This is largely a history of the proverbial forest—mostly diplomatic—not the trees. Any serious student of early American history must read this.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-01 00:00:00 Hayley Greig Embedded in one of those Goodreads update emails we subscribers get was the noticing of the fact that I had begun this book 170 days before—and it was another four days before I actually finished the last 90 or so of the book’s 1252 pages. So my first note to self was to no longer identify books that I am reading on Goodreads. Suddenly, as I read that email, I was back in 5th grade and the days when Susan Paer, with whom I had an unriciprocated crush, would walk by my desk and comment, “Are you still reading that?” My second note to self was to wait a few months, give or take a year, before I began volume two of the Adams History of the US, the 1300 plus pages that cover the Madison administrations. Adams is a very fine writer and an early practioner of the kind of intense document research that is the now the norm but was radically new then, so this is certainly a classic of both American Literature and of world history. Yet, yet, it’s 1252 pages long. Jefferson administrations included allies and enemies such as John Marshall, Aaron Burr (he, of the duel that killed Hamilton and the conspiracy to separate the west--Ohio, Kentucky, Louisiana, etc.--from the coastal states and Jefferson’s first term vice president, was both), Napoleon, various European royalty and ministers, Andrew Jackson (straddling the fence of rebellion), James Madison, James Monroe, John Randolph, and Albert Gallatin. So an intersting cast of characters. Adams makes clear how fragile the country was in these its young years and how much still needed to be figured out if the country would survive. The Republican party was a small Federal government party, fearful that a strong Federal government, one that had a navy and a standing army, would become a tyranny. So Britain and France, two destructive big cats, play with the mouse that is the US, batting it this way and that. Jefferson was the party leader and its spokesperson but even he could not implement successfully a very unpopular non-violent alternative to war, the embargo. It worked as well as Prohibition. Adams also makes clear that Jefferson, despite his small government leanings, took many steps that strengthened the Federal government, from the Louisiana Purchase to authorizing of national highways, canals, and other major public works in the national interest. He was not always well-served, or served at all by those whose job it was to serve him. Take General James Wilkinson, please. He was the head of the US's small army, stationed in the southwest frontier (shared with Spain’s colonies). He was a long-term paid agent of the Spanish crown. Wilkinson, an interesting if unimpressive figure, was also a conspirator of Burr’s, though he arrested him on Jefferson’s orders—the controversial trial would end with an acquittal, though Burr was blatantly guilty, because too many of the best witnesses would have incriminated Wilkinson and others connected to the government and the facts would have embarrassed the government for its negligence in responding to the very public Burr threat. It was a wild, uncertain time. Several leading Federalists were more than just confidants of the British ministers in the US. So while we often look back at the names of the leaders of our nation in its early years and think Great Men whose like we will never see again, what we see here is a mix of talented but highly flawed leaders and some perfectly mediocre and at time venal, incompetent, and occasionally dastardly individuals. Oh, and the press, the press was a rabid dog compared even to our worst talk radio and cable practioners today. O’Reilly and Obermann could have passed for fair and balanced then, however much they miss that mark now. Jefferson was one of our giants for his contribution to American political thought and the writing of the Declaration of Independence but, despite the Louisiana Purchase and some other critical accomplishments, a fairly mediocre President. He had big dreams, not the least was the failed idea that peaceful resistance (the embargo) could overthrow military might, but like his recognition of the injustice of slavery and the ideal of an agrarian democracy of republican states, they were not dreams that his leadership could deliver to reality. Adams is a graceful, insightful, engaging writer (though there are dry spots as you might suspect) and despite having to push myself through the final third, I also had to resist taking the second volume off the shelf and begin it immediately.