"Unable to Advance a Coherent (or Even Accurate) Narrative"

"On the surface, this is almost interesting—the kind of reference that makes its wielder seem erudite. The 'American system' was a program for the development of the nation's infrastructure (financed by high tariffs for selected industries and sustained by a national bank), a project of the Whig Party and its leaders, like Kentucky's Henry Clay. Abraham Lincoln was an admirer of this system and promoted key elements as president. And one could say that the Roosevelts, or at least Franklin Roosevelt, were pioneers of a second American system, whose ideas were contiguous with the first. But that's where the actual history ends."

At Slate, Jamelle Bouie criticizes Steve Bannon's view of the nineteenth century.

"The First Victim of American Imperialism"

"Many important figures of the epoch, with shame and regret, recognized its nature. That 'most outrageous war' (John Quincy Adams wrote) had been 'actuated by a spirit of rapacity and an inordinate desire for territorial aggrandizement' (Henry Clay), and began with a premeditated attack by President James Polk, thanks to which 'a band of murderers and demons from hell' were 'permitted to kill men, women and children' (Abraham Lincoln).

"After the naval bombardment of the civilian population of Veracruz, Robert E. Lee wrote to his wife, 'My heart bleeds for the inhabitants.' In his memoirs, Ulysses S. Grant lamented that he had not had "the moral courage to resign' from what, as a young officer, he had described as 'the most wicked war.' For a number of other politicians and thinkers, including Henry David Thoreau, the war contradicted the democratic and republican values on which the country had been founded and was opposed to basic Christian ethics."

Enrique Krauze at The New York Times writes about an effort to invalidate the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

"Hamilton’s Work, By Contrast, Reveals the Truth That for Capital, There Is No 'Outside of the State'"

"Even today, Hamilton's ideas about state-led industrialization offer much. Consider the crisis of climate change. Alas, we do not have the luxury of making this an agenda item for our future post-capitalist assembly. Facing up to it demands getting off fossil fuels in a very short time frame. That requires a massive and immediate industrial transformation, which must be undertaken using the actually existing states and economies currently on hand. Such a project can only be led by the state—an institution that Hamilton’s writing and life's work helps us to rethink."


Christian Parenti in Jacobin champions Alexander Hamilton, instead of Thomas Jefferson, as a progressive model.

"We Were Born with a Divided Political Heart"

"For much of our history, Americans—even in our most quarrelsome moments—have avoided the kind of polarized politics we have now. We did so because we understood that it is when we balance our individualism with a sense of communal obligation that we are most ourselves as Americans. The 20th century was built on this balance, and we will once again prove the prophets of U.S. decline wrong if we can refresh and build upon that tradition. But doing so will require conservatives to abandon untempered individualism, which betrays what conservatism has been and should be."

E. J. Dionne, Jr., in The Washington Post wonders why conservative no longer seem to value community.

Compromised

"Clay came closest to winning the White House in 1844 but lost to James K. Polk.The skills and personality that got things done in Washington struck many Americans as evidence of the corruption and lack of principle that Jackson never tired of denouncing, particularly where Clay was concerned. But voters were reacting to more than personal attributes and tactical errors. A significant number in Clay’s own party wouldn’t vote for a slaveholder; some issues were beyond compromise."

Andrew Cayton in The New York Times reviews Robert V. Remini's At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise That Saved the Union and David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler's Henry Clay: The Essential American.

Censure and Sensibility

"Still, history shows that [Russ Feingold] ought to move carefully. While many have compared the censure proposal to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, there is a more relevant precedent: In 1834, America's most famous political orator, Henry Clay of Kentucky, arranged the Senate's only successful censure of a president, Andrew Jackson — and he never stopped paying for his accomplishment."

Historian H.W. Brands in The New York Times assesses the legacy of presidential censure.