Presidential Audits — Volume 2
Washington to Jackson
This volume contains the completed presidential audits from George Washington through Andrew Jackson, covering the founding presidency, early party conflict, territorial expansion, the rise of mass democracy, and the transformation of executive power from 1789 to 1837.
What This Volume Covers
Volume 2 examines the first seven presidencies of the United States. These administrations turned the Constitution from a written framework into a working government, tested peaceful transfer of power, created the first party conflicts, expanded the nation across the continent, and revealed the deep contradictions of a republic that spoke of liberty while preserving slavery, Native dispossession, and political exclusion.
This period includes some of the most institution-building presidencies in American history, but it also includes serious democratic liabilities. The same early republic that created cabinet government, federal courts, public credit, diplomatic neutrality, party transfer, national development, and mass electoral politics also strengthened systems of racial exclusion, slavery, removal, and territorial expansion at Indigenous expense.
Volume 2 should therefore be read as a foundational audit volume: it shows how early presidential power developed, how democratic participation expanded for some groups while excluding others, and how the project’s five-score framework separates achievement from democratic harm.
Included Presidential Audits
George Washington
1789–1797
Foundational presidency; constitutional implementation, executive restraint, public credit, neutrality, and the two-term precedent, balanced against slavery, Native dispossession, and democratic exclusion.
John Adams
1797–1801
Preserved constitutional government after Washington, avoided full war with France, and supported peaceful transfer, but carried serious liability through the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Thomas Jefferson
1801–1809
Oversaw the Louisiana Purchase and strengthened party-transfer legitimacy, while carrying major democratic liabilities involving slavery, Native policy, expansion, and constitutional inconsistency.
James Madison
1809–1817
Presided over the War of 1812 and helped preserve the republic through crisis, but exposed weaknesses in military preparation, executive coordination, and national unity.
James Monroe
1817–1825
Stabilizing and consequential presidency; Monroe Doctrine, Florida acquisition, diplomatic boundary settlement, and national consolidation, but limited by slavery, Missouri crisis, and Native dispossession.
John Quincy Adams
1825–1829
Highly qualified and principled president with ambitious national-development goals, but limited by the disputed election of 1824, political isolation, and limited enacted achievement.
Andrew Jackson
1829–1837
Transformative and deeply damaging presidency; strengthened mass party politics and executive power, defended the Union during nullification, but caused grave democratic damage through Indian Removal, racial exclusion, slavery, and executive overreach.
Period Themes
This volume tracks the birth of the executive branch, the development of cabinet government, the rise of party competition, the testing of peaceful transfer, the expansion of presidential power, the growth of national territory, and the widening conflict between democratic rhetoric and exclusionary practice.
The central tension of the period is clear: early presidents built durable constitutional government while also preserving or expanding systems that denied political equality to enslaved people, Native nations, women, Black citizens, and many others excluded from the formal democracy of the time.
How to Use This Volume
Use this volume to review the full source-dense audit record for the first seven presidents. The individual web pages provide readable public summaries and live scorecard tables, while the full PDF preserves the longer audit text, starter bibliographies, evidence notes, and category-by-category analysis.
Readers should compare each president across the same five categories: Achievement, Democratic Strengthening, Oath of Office, Corruption, and Democratic Damage. The early republic makes that separation especially important because major institution-building achievements often existed beside serious democratic exclusion and human harm.
Volume 1 explains the scoring framework. Volume 2 applies that framework to the first presidential era.
Full Volume Review
This page is the public overview. The full Volume 2 PDF remains the detailed review document for the Washington-to-Jackson audit period.