The Post-Presidency from Washington to Clinton by Burton I. Kaufman (review)

“What to do with ex-presidents?” (ix). This question begins Burton I. Kaufman’s expansive study on the assorted hereafters of American chief executives, The Post-Presidency from Washington to Clinton. Kaufman, a former dean of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Miami University in Ohio, argues that the informal position of the postpresidency initially emerged with adherence to the republican ethos of the private citizen. In time, ex-presidents assumed partisan activity, sought financial gain, and spearheaded philanthropy, thereby creating a position of significance. Kaufman offers a “biographical” approach that profiles how private and public activities of ex-presidents have molded a unique facet of political culture (xi).

The primary strength of this book is its breadth. Excluding presidents who died during or shortly after their term in office, Kaufman offers portraits of 31 former chief executives in 13 chapters, an epilogue, and a bibliographical essay. The detail captured in this volume eludes quick explanation. For students of public address and presidential rhetoric, however, the upshot of this history is clear: Kaufman reminds us of the varied attempts by ex-presidents to stay relevant, to engage issues, and to wield influence when out of office. In the postpresidency, opportunity awaits. Presidents perceived as ineffective—Quincy Adams, Fillmore, Hoover, and Carter—carry more importance, Kaufman argues, when out of office.

In the first two chapters, Kaufman argues that the postpresidencies from Washington to Quincy Adams were defined by a tension between remaining a private citizen and staying active in politics. Fissures in the private citizen ethos emerge early, such as John Adams’s penning over 1,000 pages defending his presidency in the Boston Patriot (19). Jefferson’s role as “unofficial advisor” to Madison represented a delicate balance between public and private retirement (23). The tilt toward public partisanship continued with Madison’s involvement in the nullification crisis and the American Colonization Society (42–46) and took full bloom with Quincy Adams’s storied postpresidential career in the House of Representatives. This, Kaufman argues, represented the “first former president to reject the concept that former presidents should not be involved in politics” (55), and the first time an ex-president’s retirement “transcended whatever deficiencies he might have displayed as president” (69).

Of the three postpresidencies profiled in chapter 3, Van Buren’s marks a continuation of this move toward political activism. Van Buren’s “free soil, free labor, free men” philosophy and involvement in the Free Soil Party mark the first time an ex-president attempted a new presidential term and a significant transition in postpresidential partisanship (88). Of the “dough-faced” presidents mentioned in chapter 4, Fillmore’s postpresidency helps expand Kaufman’s partisanship thesis. Though remembered as “the nation’s most forgettable president” (103), Fillmore’s Know-Nothing candidacy credits him as “the first ex-president to turn on its head the traditional republican concept of the presidency as the temporary duty of a virtuous citizen” (113).

In chapters 5, 6, and 7 Kaufman highlights the postpresidential activities from Andrew Johnson through Theodore Roosevelt. Johnson and Grant, he argues, both defined their retirement by redemption. For the former it meant “redeem[ing] his political reputation” (137) with a brief tenure in the Senate. For the latter this meant overcoming his financial woes to publish the “first and best personal memoir ever completed by a former president,” setting a standard for later ex-presidents (158). Other significant activities take root in the late nineteenth century, such as Hayes’s public advocacy of “more causes” and “more public events of a nonpolitical kind” than his predecessors (176), and Harrison’s postpresidential law practice, which involved breaking form as “a former president profiting from the fact he served in the White House” (195). Theodore Roosevelt expanded the public role of the ex-president: his African safari, European tour, and organization of the Progressive Party ensured he was a “powerful and influential force” like no other...