From the formation of the 1st associations of consultant government
and using slavery within the 17th century in the course of the American Revolution, the Civil
struggle, the civil rights circulate, and into the twenty-first century, Virginia’s heritage has
been marked by way of hindrances to democratic swap. within the Grandees of presidency, Brent Tarter
bargains a longer statement established in fundamental resources on how those undemocratic institutions
and concepts arose, and the way they have been either perpetuated and challenged.

Although
a lot literature on American republicanism specializes in the writings of Thomas Jefferson and James
Madison, between others, Tarter unearths how their writings have been in truth an expression of
federalism, now not of republican govt. inside Virginia, Jefferson, Madison, and others such
as John Taylor of Caroline and their contemporaries ruled in ways in which without delay contradicted
their statements approximately representative—and restricted— executive. Even the democratic rhetoric of
the yankee Revolution labored unusually little instant swap within the political practices,
associations, and tradition of Virginia. The counterrevolution of the Eighties culminated in the
structure of 1902 that disfranchised the rest of African americans. Virginians who could
vote reversed the democratic reforms embodied within the constitutions of 1851, 1864, and 1869, so
that the antidemocratic Byrd association may possibly dominate Virginia’s public lifestyles for the
first two-thirds of the 20th century.

Offering an intensive reevaluation
of the interrelationship among the phrases and activities of Virginia’s political leaders,
The Grandees of presidency offers a wholly new interpretation of Virginia’s political
history.