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When asked to identify the "founding fathers," Americans typically respond with a short list of five or six notables who have achieved iconic status in the American imagination and collective memory. The small fraternity of "famous founders" typically includes (in no particular order) Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. There is, however, a much larger company of now "forgotten founders" who made salient contributions in thought, word, and deed to the construction of the American constitutional republic and its institutions. This paper considers why a select few founders are famous and other important figures whose well-documented contributions were celebrated in their time are largely forgotten in our time. A preliminary question, long debated by historians, is whose thoughts, words, and/or deeds qualify an individual to be called a "founder"? The paper concludes that a variety of factors and circumstances help explain why certain founders have been placed in the pantheon of famous founders and others have slipped into unmerited obscurity. These factors include whether or not a selected founder played a prominent role on the national political stage after implementation of the U.S. Constitution, left a sufficient paper trail to inform or interest subsequent historians, represented a major power center or group in the new nation, was on the losing side of important national debates (such as ratification of the U.S. Constitution), and embraced an explicitly religious worldview that subsequent scholars have had a difficult time understanding. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a set of summary accounts of the lives and political careers of the first seven presidents of the United States -- George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. In doing so it distills the narrative portions of the author's Inventing the Job of President: Leadership Style from George Washington to Andrew Jackson, which will be published in the summer of 2009. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presidential Scandalogy: A Cross-Case Comparison of Watergate, Iran-Contra and Interngate ????Few things have attracted more attention in presidential administrations than political scandals. From George Washington to Bill Clinton, presidents and their aides have been accused of misdeeds from pilfering funds and conflicts of interest to foreign affairs. Yet despite the proliferation of scandals in recent times, little is understood about the political dynamics of presidential scandals and how the increasing use of scandals for political objectives has changed the institution of the presidency. In this research, I undertake a comparative study of presidential scandals to see what they tell us about modern politics. Using case studies of scandals from the 1960s to the 1990s I investigate why scandals come about, how presidents can best handle them and what the consequences of this trend towards scandal politics are for the institution of the presidency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Washington is iconographic in the drama of the American Founding. As most biographers of Washington contend, it is difficult to get beyond the facade to understand the man himself. It may be, however, that the attempt to do so is really missing the point. In Washington, the image may be the man, the man the image. Washington's own self-consciousness, common-sense political philosophy, and the prevalence of republican ideology to which he actively sought to conform created the conditions under which the man and the historical moment met in the creation of the American Republic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Washington's presidency set important precedents for the new executive. Public support was important for Washington's strategy during the Whiskey Rebellion, and demonstrates the structural nature of the public presidency. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are concerned with how the use of religious rhetoric by presidents may have varied over time. We offer a rigorous analysis of the use of symbolic religious rhetoric in presidential inaugural addresses from George Washington to George W. Bush. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]