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Student s Guide to the Presidency Student s Guides to the
U S Government Cq Press Digital Instant Download
Author(s): CQ Press
ISBN(s): 9780872895553, 0872895556
Edition: Annual
File Details: PDF, 7.82 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
S TUDENT’S G UIDE TO THE

Presidency
Student’s Guides to the U.S. Government Series

Volume 1: Student’s Guide to

Elections
Volume 2: Student’s Guide to
Congress
Volume 3: Student’s Guide to
the Presidency
Volume 4: Student’s Guide to
the Supreme Court
STUDENT’S GUIDE TO THE

Presidency

ADVISORY Editor
Bruce J. Schulman, Ph.D.
Boston University

A Division of SAGE
Washington, D.C.
DEVELOPED, DESIGNED, AND PRODUCED BY

DWJ BOOKS LLC

CQ Press
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Copyright © 2009 by CQ Press, a division of SAGE. CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional Quarterly Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.

Cover design: Matthew Simmons/www.MyselfIncluded.com

Photo acknowledgments for the Primary Source Library: Library of Congress: pp. 340, 343, 344, 345, 346, 348, 351; The Granger
Collection, New York: p. 342; Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Manuscript Div., Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.: p. 347;
Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library: p. 354; Ralph E. Becker Collection, Smithsonian Institution: p. 356;
Herbert Orth, Time Life Pictures, Getty Images: p. 359; MPI, Getty Images: p. 362; AP Images: pp. 363, 365, 367, 368, 371;
Scott J. Ferrell, CQ: p. 375.

The paper used in this publication exceeds the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.

Printed and bound in the United Stated of America

12 11 10 09 08 1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Student's guide to the presidency

p. cm. — (Student's guides to the U.S. Government series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87289-555-3
1. Presidents—United States. 2. Executive power—United States.
I. Schulman, Bruce J. II. Title. III. Series.
JK516.S8 2009
352.230973—dc22 2008050731
 C ONTENTS

List of Illustrations viii Clinton, Bill, Administration of (1993–2001) 66

Reader’s Guide x Commander in Chief 69
About the Advisory Editor xiii Constitution of the United States 73
Preface xiv Constitutional Convention and the Presidency 74
Historical Milestones of the U.S. Presidency, Conventions, Presidential Nominating 78
1788–2009: A Timeline xvi Justice for All: Geraldine Ferraro (1935– )
Coolidge, Calvin, Administration of
Part One: ESSAYS (1923–1929) 86
The Executive Branch: Behind the Scenes Democratic Party (1828– ) 88
Since 1789 1 Department of Agriculture (USDA) 93
Power Trip? How Presidents Have Increased Department of Commerce 94
the Power of the Office 11 Department of Defense (DOD) 95
Is the U.S. President the Most Powerful Spotlight: Department of War and
Leader in the World? 17 Department of the Navy
Department of Education 97
Part Two: THE PRESIDENCY A TO Z Department of Energy (DOE) 98
Adams, John, Administration of (1797–1801) 26 Department of Health and Human
Justice for All: Midnight Judges Services (HHS) 98
Adams, John Quincy, Administration of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 99
(1825–1829) 28 Decision Makers: Michael Chertoff (1953– )
Air Force One 29 Department of Housing and Urban Development
Arthur, Chester A., Administration of (HUD) 102
(1881–1885) 31 Decision Makers: Alphonso Jackson (1945– )
Assassinations and Assassination Attempts 31 Department of Justice 103
Buchanan, James, Administration of Justice for All: John Mitchell (1913–1988)
(1857–1861) 36 Department of Labor 106
Bush v. Gore (2000) 36 Department of State 107
Justice for All: The Dred Scott Case (1857) Decision Makers: Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
Bush, George H.W., Administration of Department of the Interior 109
(1989–1993) 41 Justice for All: Albert Fall (1861–1944)
Bush, George W., Administration of Department of the Treasury 110
(2001–2009) 44 Decision Makers: Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804)
Cabinet 47 Department of Transportation (DOT) 112
Carter, Jimmy, Administration of Department of Veterans Affairs 113
(1977–1981) 49 Eisenhower, Dwight D., Administration of
Chief Diplomat 52 (1953–1961) 114
Chief Economist 54 Election of 2008 116
Chief Executive 56 Elections, Presidential 117
Chief of State 56 Electoral College 118
Civil Service System 57 Emergency Powers 120
Cleveland, Grover, Administrations of Executive Agreements 126
(1885–1889, 1893–1897) 64 Executive Departments 128

v
★ vi ★ Contents

Executive Orders 132 National Security Council 192

Federalism 135 Decision Makers: Henry Kissinger (1923– )
Federalist Party (1792–1816) 135 Nixon, Richard M., Administration of
Fillmore, Millard, Administration of (1969–1974) 196
(1850–1853) 137 Oath of Office 199
First Lady 137 Office of Management and Budget 200
Spotlight: Martha Washington and Laura Bush PACs (Political Action Committees) 202
Ford, Gerald R., Administration of Pierce, Franklin, Administration of
(1974–1977) 140 (1853–1857) 202
Foreign Policy and the Presidency 142 Pocket Veto 204
Garfield, James A., Administration of (1881) 144 Political Parties and the President 206
Gore, Albert (1948– ) 145 Polk, James, Administration of (1845–1849) 208
Government Agencies and Corporations 147 Presidency and Congress 210
Grant, Ulysses S., Administration of Presidency and the Bureaucracy 215
(1869–1877) 151 Presidency and the Media 217
Harding, Warren, Administration of Presidency and the Supreme Court 220
(1921–1923) 153 Presidency, Qualifications for 227
Harrison, Benjamin, Administration of Presidential Appearances and Public Appeals 230
(1889–1893) 154 Presidential Campaigns 233
Harrison, William Henry, Administration Presidential Commissions 236
of (1841) 156 Presidential Debates 238
Hayes, Rutherford B., Administration of Presidential Disability 239
(1877–1881) 157 Point/Counterpoint: Should Third Party
Hoover, Herbert, Administration of Candidates Participate in Presidential Debates?
(1929–1933) 158 Presidential Pardons 246
Impeachment, Presidential 160 Presidential Primaries 247
Impoundment Powers 162 Presidential Salaries and Benefits 251
Inaugural Address 164 Presidential Succession 258
Jackson, Andrew, Administration of Point/Counterpoint: Should Presidential
(1829–1837) 166 Vacancies Be Filled by Special Election?
Jefferson, Thomas, Administration of Public Opinion and the Presidency 262
(1801–1809) 170 Reagan, Ronald, Administration of
Johnson, Andrew, Administration of (1981–1989) 267
(1865–1869) 172 Republican Party (1854– ) 269
Johnson, Lyndon B., Administration of Roosevelt, Franklin D., Administration of
(1963–1969) 174 (1933–1945) 273
Kennedy, John F., Administration of Roosevelt, Theodore, Administration of
(1961–1963) 176 (1901–1909) 276
Spotlight: The Berlin Wall, 1961 and 1989 Secret Service 279
Legislative Leader 179 Spotlight: Who Is Eligible for Secret Service
Lincoln, Abraham, Administration of Protection?
(1861–1865) 181 Separation of Powers 285
Spotlight: Jefferson Davis State of the Union Address 285
Line-Item Veto 185 Taft, William Howard, Administration of
Madison, James, Administration of (1909–1913) 288
(1809–1817) 186 Taylor, Zachary, Administration of
McKinley, William, Administration of (1849–1850) 290
(1897–1901) 188 Third Parties and Presidential Elections 290
Monroe, James, Administration of Point/Counterpoint: Are Third Parties Relevant?
(1817–1825) 190 The Transition Period 297
 ★
Contents ★ vii

The Treaty Power 299 Twelfth Amendment, 1804 341

Truman, Harry S., Administration of Thomas Jefferson Being Robbed by
(1945–1953) 303 King George III and Napoleon, 1809 342
Twelfth Amendment (1804) 306 King Andrew I, 1832 343
Twentieth Amendment (1933) 307 A Hard Road to Hoe, 1840 344
Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967) 308 Keep the Ball Rolling, 1840 345
Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) 310 Harrison Memorial Ribbon, 1841 346
Twenty-second Amendment (1951) 310 James Buchanan’s Inauguration,
Point/Counterpoint: Should the March 4, 1857 347
Twenty-second Amendment Be Repealed? Union Is Dissolved! 1860 348
Twenty-third Amendment (1961) 312 Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, 1861 349
Tyler, John, Administration of (1841–1845) 313 Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, 1865 350
Van Buren, Martin, Administration of Congressional Government, 1885 352
(1837–1841) 316 Point/Counterpoint: Two Views
Veto Power 317 of Executive Authority
Vice Presidency 320 President McKinley Shot Down, 1901 356
Vice Presidential Vacancies 323 Twentieth Amendment, 1933 357
War Powers Resolution 327 Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Speech, 1941 358
Washington, George, Administration of Twenty-second Amendment, 1951 360
(1789–1797) 328 Twenty-third Amendment, 1961 360
Spotlight: Precedents Established Twenty-fourth Amendment, 1964 361
by George Washington Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964 361
Watergate Scandal 332 Twenty-fifth Amendment, 1967 363
Whig Party (1834–1856) 332 Vice President Spiro T. Agnew Resigns, 1973 365
White House 334 President Richard Nixon’s Letter
Spotlight: White House Renovations of Resignation, August 9, 1974 367
Wilson, Woodrow, Administration of (1913–1921) 336 Gerald R. Ford’s Pardon of Richard Nixon, 1974 368
George W. Bush’s Speech, September 11, 2001 370
Part Three: PRIMARY SOURCE State of the Union Address, 2008 372
LIBRARY
United States Constitution, Article I, Using Primary Sources 376
Section 7, 1789 339 Glossary 379
United States Constitution, Article II, Selected Bibliography 383
Section 3, 1789 340 General Index 387
 L IST OF I LLUSTRA TIONS

Charts/Graphs Voters protesting Florida decision 40

Civil Service Reforms 63 Cartoon: No New Taxes 42
Major U.S. Military Interventions, 1961–2008 71 Cartoon: Greenhouse Gases 45
The Electoral College, 1900–2008 119 Washington and his Cabinet 48
Categories and Examples of Emergency Powers 124 President Carter with Sadat and Begin 50
Governors Who Became President 228 Banner celebrating Cleveland’s return
Members of Congress Who Became President 229 to the White House, 1893 64
Constitutional Requirements for the President 229 Cartoon: Grover Cleveland 65
Line of Succession 259 President Clinton and NAFTA 68
The First Hundred Days of Franklin D. Roosevelt 274 Robert M. Gates 95
Vice Presidents Often Attain Top Spot 321 JFK with brother Robert Kennedy 104
Condoleezza Rice 107
Tables Cartoon: Eisenhower 114
Cabinet Departments 47 President Eisenhower with Churchill 115
Civilian Employees, Executive Branch, Clinton meeting with top aides 130
1816–2006 131 Alexander Hamilton 136
Executive Orders, By President, 1789–2008 133 Eleanor Roosevelt 138
Key Provisions of the Compromise of 1850 137 President Clinton at Mideast talks 143
Presidential Appearances Before Congress, Ulysses S. Grant 151
1789–2008 212 Cartoon: African Americans Voting 152
Overall Presidential Approval Ratings, Cartoon: Benjamin Harrison 155
1953–2008 (percent) 266 JFK’s inaugural ceremony 165
Major Responsibilities of the Secret Service 280 Cartoon: Jackson Attacking the
Major Themes in State of the Union Addresses, Bank of the U.S. 169
1961–2008 286 Nixon waving from helicopter after resigning 197
Top Vote-Winning Third Parties, 1832–2008 293 Cartoon: Bureaucracy 216
Growth of Transition Teams and Expenditures, Reagan-Carter debates 239
1952–2001 298 Lyndon B. Johnson taking oath of office
Vetoes and Vetoes Overridden, All Bills, on Air Force One 245
1789–2008 318 Theodore Roosevelt campaigning 251
Cartoon: Uncle Sam Demonstrates His Support
Maps of Roosevelt’s New Deal 275
Disputed Election of 1876 157 Secret Service during Reagan assassination
U.S. During the Civil War 184 attempt 281
Kansas-Nebraska Act 203 Cartoon: Taft 289
Perot on Larry King Live 296
Photos Woodrow Wilson and the Versailles Treaty 301
The White House 9 Harry S. Truman taking oath after
The Oval Office 15 President Roosevelt’s death 304
President Barack Obama 24 Cartoon: His Accidency 314
John Adams 28 John Tyler 315
Air Force One 30 Martin Van Buren 316

viii
 ★
List of Illustrations ★ ix

Gerald R. Ford being sworn in as Theodore Roosevelt and Taft 354

vice president, 1973 326 Newspaper headline: “McKinley Shot Down” 356
Constitution of the United States 340 Four Freedoms speech 359
Cartoon: Jefferson Being Robbed by President Johnson signing
King George III and Napoleon, 1809 342 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 362
Cartoon: King Andrew I 343 Gerald R. Ford and Nelson Rockefeller 363
Cartoon: A Hard Road to Hoe 344 Spiro Agnew 365
Cartoon: Keep the Ball Rolling 345 Nixon’s letter of resignation 367
Memorial armband 346 Richard Nixon’s resignation speech 368
Buchanan’s inauguration 347 George W. Bush giving speech on 9/11 371
Broadside: “Union is Dissolved” 348 George W. Bush giving State of the Union
Lincoln’s second inaugural address 351 address 375
 R EADER ’ S G UIDE

The list that follows is provided as an aid to readers in locating articles on related topics. The Reader’s
Guide arranges all of the A–Z entries in the Guide according to 11 key concepts of the curriculum in
American Government: Administrations, Presidential; Amendments; Elections and the Electoral
Process; Executive Branch; Federalism and Politics; Political Parties; Presidential Benefits and Perks;
Presidential Duties and Responsibilities; Principles of Government; The Constitution; and Vice
Presidents and the Vice Presidency. Some articles appear in more than one category.

Administrations, Presidential Roosevelt, Franklin D., Administration of (1933–1945)

Adams, John, Administration of (1797–1801). Roosevelt, Theodore, Administration of (1901–1909)
Adams, John Quincy, Administration of (1825–1829) Taft, William H., Administration of (1909–1913)
Arthur, Chester A., Administration of (1881–1885) Taylor, Zachary, Administration of (1849–1850)
Buchanan, James, Administration of (1857–1861) Truman, Harry S., Administration of (1945–1953)
Bush, George H.W., Administration of (1989–1993) Tyler, John, Administration of (1841–1845)
Bush, George W., Administration of (2001–2009) Van Buren, Martin, Administration of (1837–1841)
Carter, Jimmy, Administration of (1977–1981) Washington, George, Administration of (1789–1797)
Cleveland, Grover, Administrations of (1885–1889, Wilson, Woodrow, Administration of (1913–1921)
1893–1897)
Clinton, William J., Administration of (1993–2001) Amendments
Coolidge, Calvin, Administration of (1923–1929) Twelfth Amendment (1804)
Eisenhower, Dwight D., Administration of (1953–1961) Twentieth Amendment (1933)
Fillmore, Millard, Administration of (1850–1853) Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967)
Ford, Gerald R., Administration of (1974–1977) Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)
Garfield, James A., Administration of (1881) Twenty-second Amendment (1951)
Grant, Ulysses S., Administration of (1869–1877) Twenty-third Amendment (1961)
Harding, Warren, Administration of (1921–1923)
Harrison, Benjamin, Administration of (1889–1893) Elections and the Electoral Process
Harrison, William Henry, Administration of (1841) Bush v. Gore (2000)
Hayes, Rutherford B., Administration of (1877–1881) Conventions, Presidential Nominating
Hoover, Herbert, Administration of (1929–1933) Democratic Party (1828– )
Jackson, Andrew, Administration of (1829–1837) Election of 2008
Jefferson, Thomas, Administration of (1801–1809) Elections, Presidential
Johnson, Andrew, Administration of (1865–1869) Electoral College
Johnson, Lyndon B., Administration of (1963–1969) Federalist Party (1792–1816)
Kennedy, John F., Administration of (1961–1963) First Lady
Lincoln, Abraham, Administration of (1861–1865) PACs (Political Action Committees)
Madison, James, Administration of (1809–1817) Political Parties and the President
McKinley, William, Administration of (1897–1901) Presidency and the Media
Monroe, James, Administration of (1817–1825) Presidency, Qualifications for
Nixon, Richard M., Administration of (1969–1974) Presidential Appearances and Public Appeals
Pierce, Franklin, Administration of (1853–1857) Presidential Campaigns
Polk, James, Administration of (1845–1849) Presidential Debates
Reagan, Ronald, Administration of (1981–1989) Presidential Primaries

x
 ★
Reader’s Guide ★ xi

Public Opinion and the Presidency Line-Item Veto

Republican Party (1854– ) Pocket Veto
Third Parties and Presidential Elections Presidency and Congress
The Transition Period Presidency and the Bureaucracy
Twelfth Amendment (1804) Presidency and the Supreme Court
Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) Veto Power
Twenty-second Amendment (1951) Vice Presidency
Vice Presidency
Watergate Scandal Political Parties
Whig Party (1834–1856) Democratic Party (1828– )
Federalist Party (1792–1816)
Executive Branch Political Parties and the President
Cabinet Public Opinion and the Presidency
Department of Agriculture (USDA) Republican Party (1854– )
Department of Commerce Third Parties and Presidential Elections
Department of Defense (DOD) Whig Party (1834–1856)
Department of Education
Department of Energy (DOE) Presidential Benefits and Perks
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Air Force One
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Presidential Salaries and Benefits
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secret Service
Department of Justice White House
Department of Labor
Department of State Presidential Duties and Responsibilities
Department of the Interior Chief Diplomat
Department of the Treasury Chief Economist
Department of Transportation (DOT) Chief Executive
Department of Veterans Affairs Chief of State
Executive Departments Commander in Chief
First Lady Constitution of the United States
Government Agencies and Corporations Emergency Powers
National Security Council Executive Agreements
Office of Management and Budget Executive Orders
Presidency and the Bureaucracy Foreign Policy and the Presidency
Presidential Commissions Inaugural Address
Secret Service Legislative Leader
Separation of Powers Oath of Office
The Transition Period Presidential Pardons
White House State of the Union Address
The Treaty Power
Federalism and Politics War Powers Resolution
Civil Service System
Constitution of the United States Principles of Government
Constitutional Convention and the Presidency Constitution of the United States
Conventions, Presidential Nominating Constitutional Convention and the Presidency
Elections, Presidential Elections, Presidential
Federalism Electoral College
Federalist Party (1792–1816) Federalism
Impeachment, Presidential Impeachment, Presidential
Legislative Leader Impoundment Powers
★ xii ★ Reader’s Guide

Pocket Veto Twentieth Amendment (1933)

Presidency and Congress Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967)
Presidency and the Bureaucracy Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964)
Presidency and the Supreme Court Twenty-second Amendment (1951)
Presidency, Qualifications for Twenty-third Amendment (1961)
Separation of Powers Veto Power
Watergate Scandal
Vice Presidents and the Vice Presidency
The Constitution Assassinations and Assassination Attempts
Constitution of the United States Gore, Al (1948– )
Constitutional Convention and the Presidency National Security Council
Elections, Presidential Presidential Disability
Electoral College Presidential Succession
Impeachment, Presidential Twelfth Amendment (1804)
Separation of Powers Twenty-fifth Amendment (1967)
The Treaty Power Vice Presidency
Twelfth Amendment (1804) Vice Presidential Vacancies
 A BOUT THE A DVISOR Y E DITOR

Bruce J. Schulman is The William E. Huntington professor of History at Boston

University, a position he has held since 2007. Dr. Schulman has also served as the
Director of the American and New England Studies Program at Boston University.
Prior to moving to Boston University, Dr. Schulman was associate professor of
History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Schulman received his Ph.D.
and M.A. from Stanford University; he received his B.A., Summa Cum Laude with
Distinction, in history from Yale University.

Since the 1980s, Dr. Schulman has been teaching and writing about the political
face of the United States. He has taken an active role in education at the high school
level as well as serving as the Principal Investigator for the Teaching American His-
tory Grant program with the Boston Public Schools. He also worked with the History
Alive program, a curriculum-based interactive instructional program. In addition, Dr.
Schulman served as director of The History Project in California, a joint effort of the
University of California and the California State Department of Education to improve
history education in the public primary and secondary schools.

Dr. Schulman is the author of several award-winning and notable books that com-
bine his interest in history and politics. Among them are: From Cotton Belt
to Sunbelt: Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South,
1938–1980; Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism; The Seventies: The Great
Shift in American Culture, Politics, and Society; and Rightward Bound: Making Amer-
ica Conservative in the 1970s (co-edited with Julian Zelizer). Dr. Schulman’s published
books and numerous essays have examined and scrutinized the fabric of America’s po-
litical and socioeconomic life and its direct impact on today’s citizens.

xiii
 P REFACE

As British Prime Minister Winston Churchill dency—the ways in which the office has changed
once remarked, “It has been said that democ- over the past two-and-a-half centuries as well as its
racy is the worst form of government except for current status, unlocking the mysteries surround-
all those others that have been tried.” In CQ ing such contemporary issues as campaign finance
Press’s new series, Student’s Guides to the U.S. reform, the qualifications for the nation’s highest
Government, librarians, educators, students, and office, and the separation of powers. Each of the
other researchers will find essential resources three parts of the Student’s Guide to the Presi-
for understanding the strange wonder, alter- dency takes a unique approach to enhancing users’
nately inspiring and frustrating, that is Ameri- understanding of the national executive branch.
can democracy. Part One features three essays, each of which
In the Student’s Guide to the Presidency, the addresses a provocative issue or question about
third volume in the Student’s Guides series, both America’s highest office: “The Executive Branch:
young and experienced researchers, especially stu- Behind the Scenes Since 1789”; “Power Trip?
dents and teachers, will find all they need to know How Presidents Have Increased the Power of
about America’s chief executive—the constitutional the Office”; and “Is the U.S. President the Most
provisions and legal procedures, the pivotal cam- Powerful Leader in the World?”
paigns and the outrageous scandals, the key play- Part Two features more than 125 A–Z entries
ers and the watershed policy changes—the pure spanning the administration of John Adams—the
pageantry of American presidential politics. The nation’s second president and first vice president,
office is part royalty—the nation’s ceremonial head the latter position described by him as “the most
of state as well as its head of government—and part insignificant office that ever the invention of man
democracy—the only office, along with the vice contrived or his imagination conceived”—to the ad-
presidency, elected by all of the people, this most ministration of Woodrow Wilson. Entries address
dynamic and most scrutinized branch of the federal the major Cabinet posts; executive departments;
government has always been a bundle of contra- the instruments of presidential power, the ways
dictions. As the presidency grew from a relatively that members of the executive branch take office
weak office with almost no staff and few preroga- and what sort of Americans have occupied the
tives into the office held by the unchallenged White House; the relationship between the presi-
leader of the government’s strongest branch, its dency and other institutions, including the Con-
inhabitants have become sources of fascination gress, the Supreme Court, the political parties,
and controversy. One president, Lyndon B. John- the states, and the federal bureaucracy; as well
son (1963–1969), barely exaggerated when he as the historic election in 2008 of America’s first
suggested that, “being president is like being a African American president, Barack Obama.
jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but Special features within Part Two abound:
to stand there and take it.” Although critics have “Point/Counterpoint” highlights opposing views
seen danger in the concentration of power in the on the same issue using primary evidence and
White House, partisans of freedom the world over concludes with a thought-provoking “Document-
have also hailed the office as a beacon of hope, a Based Question.” “Spotlight” focuses on unique
symbol of democratic values, an institution that situations and events. “Decision Makers” takes
makes even the most powerful leader subject to a closer look at notable individuals, and “Justice
the aspirations and values of the people. for All” examines important moments in the long
The Student’s Guide to the Presidency unravels journey to extend the fundamental rights of citi-
the historical development of the American presi- zens to all Americans.

xiv
 ★
Preface ★ xv

Part Three contains a “Primary Source of useful, often hard-to-find facts and present
Library” of key documents, including inaugural them in the context of the political environment
addresses and constitutional amendments involving for easy use in research projects, answering
the election of the president and presidential document-based questions, and writing essays
succession; photos; and political cartoons that are or reports.
essential to understanding the history of the The Student’s Guides offer valuable tools for
American Presidency. These documents comple- civics education and for the study of American
ment the information highlighted in both the politics and government. They introduce young
essays in Part One and the A–Z entries in Part people to the institutions, procedures, and rules
Two. Part Three also includes guidelines for us- that form the foundations of American govern-
ing the Primary Source Library and for general ment. They assemble for students and teachers
research. The guidelines offer direction on Re- the essential material for understanding the
searching with Primary and Secondary Sources, workings of American politics and the nature of
Developing Research Questions, Identifying political participation in the United States. The
Sources of Information, Planning and Organiz- Guides explain the roots and development of
ing research for use in a paper or report, Doc- representative democracy, the system of federal-
umenting Sources for the Bibliography, and ism, the separation of powers, and the specific
Citing Sources. roles of legislators, executives, and judges in the
Other helpful tools include a List of Illustra- American system of governance. The Guides
tions, a Reader’s Guide that arranges material provide immediate access to the details about
thematically according to the key concepts of the changing nature of political participation by
the American Government curriculum, and a ordinary Americans and the essential role of
timeline of Historical Milestones of the U.S. citizens in a representative democracy.
Presidency. The Guide concludes with a Glos- At the heart of the Student’s Guides to the
sary of political and elections terminology, a U.S. Government is the conviction that the con-
Selected Bibliography, and an Index. tinued success of the American experiment in
An eye-catching, user-friendly design enhances self-government and the survival of democratic
the text. Throughout, numerous charts, graphs, ideals depend on a knowledgeable and engaged
tables, maps, cross-references, sources for fur- citizenry—on educating the next generation of
ther reading, and images illustrate concepts. American citizens. Understanding American
government and history is essential to that cru-
The Student’s Guides to the cial education process, for freedom depends on
U.S. Government Series knowing how our system of governance evolved
Additional titles in the Student’s Guides to the and how we are governed.
U.S. Government series include the Student’s By learning the rudiments of American
Guide to Elections, the Student’s Guide to Con- government—the policies, procedures, and
gress, and the Student’s Guide to the Supreme processes that built the modern United States—
Court. Collectively, these titles will offer indis- young people can fulfill the promise of Ameri-
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and government. The volumes will place at the essential information needed by student re-
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struggles to create the United States govern- authoritative resources for civics and history
ment in the late eighteenth century through the education.
ongoing controversies and dramatic strides of
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For study in American history, the Student’s The William E. Huntington Professor of
Guides to the U.S. Government collect a treasury History, Boston University
 HISTORICAL MILESTONES OF THE U.S.
P R E S I D E N C Y, 1 7 8 8 – 2 0 0 9 : A T I M E L I N E

1788: The United States Constitution is ratified by nine 1854: Anti-slavery supporters gather at Ripon,
of the thirteen states and becomes the law of the Wisconsin, and form the Republican Party.
land. 1856: Democrat Franklin Pierce becomes the only
1789: George Washington wins the first presidential elected president denied renomination by his
election on February 4. party. James Buchanan wins the presidency.
1796: John Adams is elected president. 1860: The new Republican Party elects its first
1800: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tie in the president, Abraham Lincoln.
electoral college; the House of Representatives 1861: Civil War (1861–1865) begins.
selects Jefferson after 36 ballots. 1863: Lincoln, using his power as commander in chief,
1804: The Twelfth Amendment is passed, requiring issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
that electors vote separately for president and 1865: President Lincoln is assassinated six weeks after
vice president. the start of his second term. Andrew Johnson
1808: Jefferson continues Washington’s two-term succeeds to the presidency and comes into
precedent for presidents, declining to run for a conflict with Congressional Radical Republicans
third term; James Madison is elected president. over Reconstruction policy.
1812: James Madison asks Congress to declare war on 1868: Johnson is impeached by the House of
Great Britain. Representatives but is acquitted in the Senate.
1824: Andrew Jackson wins the popular vote but 1870: The Fifteenth Amendment, enfranchising newly
does not gain an electoral vote majority. The freed slaves, is ratified on February 3.
election must be decided by the House of 1876: Democrat Samuel J. Tilden wins the popular vote
Representatives, which elects John Quincy against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, but
Adams. Republicans challenge the results in three states.
1828: Andrew Jackson is elected president. A special electoral commission chooses Hayes.
1831: The first national party convention is held in 1881: President James A. Garfield is shot by Charles J.
Baltimore. Guiteau in Washington, D.C.; Chester A. Arthur
1832: Andrew Jackson is reelected. succeeds to the presidency.
1836: Vice President Martin Van Buren is elected 1884: Grover Cleveland is elected to the presidency,
president. becoming the first Democrat to win the White
House since before the Civil War.
1837: For the first and only time, the Senate decides
the vice-presidential election, selecting Richard 1888: Benjamin Harrison becomes the third president
M. Johnson. elected without winning the popular vote.
1840: Van Buren looses to Whig William Henry 1892: Grover Cleveland wins a second term as
Harrison. president, becoming the only president to serve
two non-consecutive terms.
1841: William Henry Harrison dies after one month
in office; John Tyler becomes first president to 1898: Spanish-American War; United States acquires
succeed to the office after the death of a sitting Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.
president. 1901: President William McKinley is shot in Buffalo,
1844: The Democrats nominate the first presidential New York; Theodore Roosevelt succeeds to the
dark-horse candidate, James K. Polk, who wins presidency.
the election. 1904: Theodore Roosevelt is elected president.
1846: Mexican-American War begins. 1908: William H. Taft is elected president.
1848: Mexican-American War ends with the Treaty of 1912: Roosevelt leaves the Republican Party and forms
Guadalupe Hidalgo. the Progressive—or Bull Moose—Party. With

xvi
 ★
Historical Milestones of the U.S. Presidency ★ xvii

Republican supporters split between incumbent 1964: The Twenty-fourth Amendment is ratified,
Taft and Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson is elected abolishing the poll tax. Lyndon Johnson wins the
president. presidency by the largest landslide in history.
1916: Wilson is reelected with the campaign slogan, 1965: The Voting Rights Act, protecting African
“He kept us out of war.” Americans’ right to vote, is passed.
1917: Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for a declaration 1967: The Twenty-fifth Amendment is passed, providing
of war against Germany to “make the world safe procedures in case the president is ill.
for democracy.” 1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is
1920: Republican Warren G. Harding elected president; assassinated; Richard Nixon is elected president
first presidential election in which women are in a close contest.
permitted to vote nationwide. 1972: Richard Nixon wins a landslide reelection.
1923: President Harding dies in office. Calvin Coolidge 1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns because of
becomes president. corruption and Nixon nominates Gerald Ford to
1924: Coolidge elected to the presidency. replace him.
1928: Republican Herbert Hoover is elected president 1974: President Nixon resigns because of the Water-
over Democratic liberal Alfred E. Smith. gate scandal; Ford succeeds to the presidency;
Ford nominates Nelson A. Rockefeller for vice
1929: Stock market crash leads to Great Depression. president.
1932: Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt promises a “new 1976: The first debate between vice-presidential can-
deal” for the American people and wins an didates, Walter F. Mondale and Bob Dole, is
election landslide. televised from Houston, Texas.
1933: Twentieth Amendment is ratified, moving the 1977: Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the thirty-ninth
beginning of the president’s term of office to president.
January 20 of the year following the election.
1981: Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the fortieth
1936: Roosevelt is reelected. president; in March, he is wounded in an
1937: Roosevelt proposes the Judiciary Reorganization assassination attempt.
Act of 1937 to increase the number of Supreme 1984: Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine
Court Justices to 15; Congress defeats the bill. Ferraro becomes the first woman on a major
1939: Germany invades Poland; France and Great party ticket, running with presidential nominee
Britain declare war on Germany. Walter Mondale.
1940: President Roosevelt breaks the two-term 1988: Republican George H.W. Bush becomes the first
precedent and is elected to a third term. sitting vice president to be elected president
since 1836.
1941: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; President
Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on 1991: Persian Gulf War
Japan. United States enters World War II. 1992: Bush loses reelection due at least in part to
1944: President Roosevelt is elected to an
H. Ross Perot, a billionaire who mounts the
unprecedented fourth term. strongest ever individual campaign, which splits
the Republican vote; Democrat Bill Clinton is
1945: Roosevelt dies in office on April 12 and Harry S. elected president with 43 percent of the popular
Truman becomes president; World War II ends. vote.
1948: President Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey. 1994: The Republican Party wins control of Congress.
1951: The Twenty-second Amendment, setting a two- 1996 President Clinton is easily elected to a second
term limit on the presidency, is ratified. term.
1960: The first presidential debate between John F. 1998: A sex scandal threatens the Clinton presidency,
Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon is televised the House of Representatives votes for
from Chicago; Kennedy wins a close election in impeachment.
November. 1999: The Senate acquits Clinton of all charges, having
1961: The Twenty-third Amendment is ratified, giving failed to get the two-thirds majority needed for
residents of Washington, D.C., the right to vote conviction.
in presidential elections. 2000: The Supreme Court settles disputed presidential
1963: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, election between Democrat Al Gore, who wins
Texas; Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds to the the popular vote, and Republican George W.
presidency. Bush, giving the election to Bush.
★ xviii ★ Historical Milestones of the U.S. Presidency

2001: Al-Qaeda attacks on New York City and Wash- office, the highest negative rating recorded for
ington D.C., as well as hijacked plane crash in a president since the firm began asking the
Somerset County, Pennsylvania, kill thousands question in 1938.
of innocent Americans.
2008: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama
2003: United States and Allied forces invade Iraq and of Illinois becomes first African American to
topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. head a major party ticket; Obama chooses Sen-
2004: President George W. Bush wins reelection with ator Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running
51 percent of the popular vote. mate. Republican nominee John McCain of
2007: Former First Lady and New York senator Hillary Arizona selects Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as
Rodham Clinton announces her candidacy for the his vice-presidential running mate; she is the
2008 Democratic presidential nomination. first woman on a Republican ticket.
2008: In an April Gallup poll, 69 percent of Americans 2009: Barack Obama is inaugurated as the forty-fourth
say they disapprove of Bush’s performance in president of the United States.
 PART O NE

Essays

The Executive Branch:

Behind the Scenes
Since 1789
The executive branch of the U.S. government centers on
the office of the president of the United States. In today’s
world, the title President of the United States speaks of
power and influence. Americans look to the president as
their leader, one who will guide them during times of crisis
and change and who will protect them and keep their best interests at
heart.
Presidents may not always fulfill these requirements; yet the people still
expect them to do so. This expectation is born from a long line of influential
presidents—those who have pushed the limits of their presidential powers both
behind the scenes and before the people—and have made a profound impact on
their country, if not the world. To understand this expectation, it is necessary
to go back to the birth of the presidency in 1789.

Outlining the Presidency

During the summer of 1787, when the country’s Framers were creating the
Constitution, they saw the need to have an executive who would enforce the
laws that are made by Congress and interpreted by the Supreme Court. Yet,
having just fought their way out from under a tyrannical British monarch, the
people of the colonies were wary of giving so much power to one individual.
Realizing the problem, the Framers set out to develop a system that would
allow each branch of government to counter the actions of the other two,
thereby limiting the power of all three branches of government. In this way,
while the people could have a strong leader who would enforce the laws, that
leader would be kept from abusing power by the built-in system of checks
and balances.
The actual job description for the presidency, as it is found in the Consti-
tution, is rather vague. It states that the president will make sure “that the
laws be faithfully executed.” The Constitution also states that the president is
the commander in chief of the United States armed forces, and has the au-
thority to grant pardons, make treaties, veto bills, and appoint government
officials. Yet, many of these powers are subject to the approval of Congress.
The authority to declare war lies with the legislative branch. Treaties made

1
Other documents randomly have
different content
To produce such counterfeits, definite rules or recipes exist in each
branch of art. So that the talented man, having assimilated them,
may produce such works à froid, cold drawn, without any feeling.
In order to write poems a man of literary talent needs only these
qualifications: to acquire the knack, conformably with the
requirements of rhyme and rhythm, of using, instead of the one
really suitable word, ten others meaning approximately the same; to
learn how to take any phrase which, to be clear, has but one natural
order of words, and despite all possible dislocations still to retain
some sense in it; and lastly, to be able, guided by the words
required for the rhymes, to devise some semblance of thoughts,
feelings, or descriptions to suit these words. Having acquired these
qualifications, he may unceasingly produce poems—short or long,
religious, amatory or patriotic, according to the demand.
If a man of literary talent wishes to write a story or novel, he need
only form his style—i.e. learn how to describe all that he sees—and
accustom himself to remember or note down details. When he has
accustomed himself to this, he can, according to his inclination or
the demand, unceasingly produce novels or stories—historical,
naturalistic, social, erotic, psychological, or even religious, for which
latter kind a demand and fashion begins to show itself. He can take
subjects from books or from the events of life, and can copy the
characters of the people in his book from his acquaintances.
And such novels and stories, if only they are decked out with well
observed and carefully noted details, preferably erotic ones, will be
considered works of art, even though they may not contain a spark
of feeling experienced.
To produce art in dramatic form, a talented man, in addition to all
that is required for novels and stories, must also learn to furnish his
characters with as many smart and witty sentences as possible,
must know how to utilise theatrical effects, and how to entwine the
action of his characters so that there should not be any long
conversations, but as much bustle and movement on the stage as
possible. If the writer is able to do this, he may produce dramatic
works one after another without stopping, selecting his subjects
from the reports of the law courts, or from the latest society topic,
such as hypnotism, heredity, etc., or from deep antiquity, or even
from the realms of fancy.
In the sphere of painting and sculpture it is still easier for the
talented man to produce imitations of art. He need only learn to
draw, paint, and model—especially naked bodies. Thus equipped he
can continue to paint pictures, or model statues, one after another,
choosing subjects according to his bent—mythological, or religious,
or fantastic, or symbolical; or he may depict what is written about in
the papers—a coronation, a strike, the Turko-Grecian war, famine
scenes; or, commonest of all, he may just copy anything he thinks
beautiful—from naked women to copper basins.
For the production of musical art the talented man needs still less of
what constitutes the essence of art, i.e. feeling wherewith to infect
others; but, on the other hand, he requires more physical, gymnastic
labour than for any other art, unless it be dancing. To produce works
of musical art, he must first learn to move his fingers on some
instrument as rapidly as those who have reached the highest
perfection; next he must know how in former times polyphonic
music was written, must study what are called counterpoint and
fugue; and furthermore, he must learn orchestration, i.e. how to
utilise the effects of the instruments. But once he has learned all
this, the composer may unceasingly produce one work after another;
whether programme-music, opera, or song (devising sounds more or
less corresponding to the words), or chamber music, i.e. he may
take another man’s themes and work them up into definite forms by
means of counterpoint and fugue; or, what is commonest of all, he
may compose fantastic music, i.e. he may take a conjunction of
sounds which happens to come to hand, and pile every sort of
complication and ornamentation on to this chance combination.
Thus, in all realms of art, counterfeits of art are manufactured to a
ready-made, prearranged recipe, and these counterfeits the public of
our upper classes accept for real art.
And this substitution of counterfeits for real works of art was the
third and most important consequence of the separation of the art of
the upper classes from universal art.
 CHAPTER XII

In our society three conditions co-operate to cause the production of

objects of counterfeit art. They are—(1) the considerable
remuneration of artists for their productions and the
professionalisation of artists which this has produced, (2) art
criticism, and (3) schools of art.
While art was as yet undivided, and only religious art was valued
and rewarded while indiscriminate art was left unrewarded, there
were no counterfeits of art, or, if any existed, being exposed to the
criticism of the whole people, they quickly disappeared. But as soon
as that division occurred, and the upper classes acclaimed every kind
of art as good if only it afforded them pleasure, and began to reward
such art more highly than any other social activity, immediately a
large number of people devoted themselves to this activity, and art
assumed quite a different character and became a profession.
And as soon as this occurred, the chief and most precious quality of
art—its sincerity—was at once greatly weakened and eventually
quite destroyed.
The professional artist lives by his art, and has continually to invent
subjects for his works, and does invent them. And it is obvious how
great a difference must exist between works of art produced on the
one hand by men such as the Jewish prophets, the authors of the
Psalms, Francis of Assisi, the authors of the Iliad and Odyssey, of
folk-stories, legends, and folk-songs, many of whom not only
received no remuneration for their work, but did not even attach
their names to it; and, on the other hand, works produced by court
poets, dramatists and musicians receiving honours and
remuneration; and later on by professional artists, who lived by the
trade, receiving remuneration from newspaper editors, publishers,
impresarios, and in general from those agents who come between
the artists and the town public—the consumers of art.
Professionalism is the first condition of the diffusion of false,
counterfeit art.
The second condition is the growth, in recent times, of artistic
criticism, i.e. the valuation of art not by everybody, and, above all,
not by plain men, but by erudite, that is, by perverted and at the
same time self-confident individuals.
A friend of mine, speaking of the relation of critics to artists, half-
jokingly defined it thus: “Critics are the stupid who discuss the wise.”
However partial, inexact, and rude this definition may be, it is yet
partly true, and is incomparably juster than the definition which
considers critics to be men who can explain works of art.
“Critics explain!” What do they explain?
The artist, if a real artist, has by his work transmitted to others the
feeling he experienced. What is there, then, to explain?
If a work be good as art, then the feeling expressed by the artist—
be it moral or immoral—transmits itself to other people. If
transmitted to others, then they feel it, and all interpretations are
superfluous. If the work does not infect people, no explanation can
make it contagious. An artist’s work cannot be interpreted. Had it
been possible to explain in words what he wished to convey, the
artist would have expressed himself in words. He expressed it by his
art, only because the feeling he experienced could not be otherwise
transmitted. The interpretation of works of art by words only
indicates that the interpreter is himself incapable of feeling the
infection of art. And this is actually the case, for, however strange it
may seem to say so, critics have always been people less susceptible
than other men to the contagion of art. For the most part they are
able writers, educated and clever, but with their capacity of being
infected by art quite perverted or atrophied. And therefore their
writings have always largely contributed, and still contribute, to the
perversion of the taste of that public which reads them and trusts
them.
Artistic criticism did not exist—could not and cannot exist—in
societies where art is undivided, and where, consequently, it is
appraised by the religious understanding-of-life common to the
whole people. Art criticism grew, and could grow, only on the art of
the upper classes, who did not acknowledge the religious perception
of their time.
Universal art has a definite and indubitable internal criterion—
religious perception; upper-class art lacks this, and therefore the
appreciators of that art are obliged to cling to some external
criterion. And they find it in “the judgments of the finest-nurtured,”
as an English æsthetician has phrased it, that is, in the authority of
the people who are considered educated, nor in this alone, but also
in a tradition of such authorities. This tradition is extremely
misleading, both because the opinions of “the finest-nurtured” are
often mistaken, and also because judgments which were valid once
cease to be so with the lapse of time. But the critics, having no basis
for their judgments, never cease to repeat their traditions. The
classical tragedians were once considered good, and therefore
criticism considers them to be so still. Dante was esteemed a great
poet, Raphael a great painter, Bach a great musician—and the
critics, lacking a standard by which to separate good art from bad,
not only consider these artists great, but regard all their productions
as admirable and worthy of imitation. Nothing has contributed, and
still contributes, so much to the perversion of art as these authorities
set up by criticism. A man produces a work of art, like every true
artist expressing in his own peculiar manner a feeling he has
experienced. Most people are infected by the artist’s feeling; and his
work becomes known. Then criticism, discussing the artist, says that
the work is not bad, but all the same the artist is not a Dante, nor a
Shakespear, nor a Goethe, nor a Raphael, nor what Beethoven was
in his last period. And the young artist sets to work to copy those
who are held up for his imitation, and he produces not only feeble
works, but false works, counterfeits of art.
Thus, for instance, our Pushkin writes his short poems, Evgeniy
Onegin, The Gipsies, and his stories—works all varying in quality, but
all true art. But then, under the influence of false criticism extolling
Shakespear, he writes Boris Godunoff, a cold, brain-spun work, and
this production is lauded by the critics, set up as a model, and
imitations of it appear: Minin by Ostrovsky, and Tsar Boris by Alexée
Tolstoy, and such imitations of imitations as crowd all literatures with
insignificant productions. The chief harm done by the critics is this,
that themselves lacking the capacity to be infected by art (and that
is the characteristic of all critics; for did they not lack this they could
not attempt the impossible—the interpretation of works of art), they
pay most attention to, and eulogise, brain-spun, invented works, and
set these up as models worthy of imitation. That is the reason they
so confidently extol, in literature, the Greek tragedians, Dante,
Tasso, Milton, Shakespear, Goethe (almost all he wrote), and, among
recent writers, Zola and Ibsen; in music, Beethoven’s last period,
and Wagner. To justify their praise of these brain-spun, invented
works, they devise entire theories (of which the famous theory of
beauty is one); and not only dull but also talented people compose
works in strict deference to these theories; and often even real
artists, doing violence to their genius, submit to them.
Every false work extolled by the critics serves as a door through
which the hypocrites of art at once crowd in.
It is solely due to the critics, who in our times still praise rude,
savage, and, for us, often meaningless works of the ancient Greeks:
Sophocles, Euripides, Æschylus, and especially Aristophanes; or, of
modern writers, Dante, Tasso, Milton, Shakespear; in painting, all of
Raphael, all of Michael Angelo, including his absurd “Last
Judgment”; in music, the whole of Bach, and the whole of
Beethoven, including his last period,—thanks only to them, have the
Ibsens, Maeterlincks, Verlaines, Mallarmés, Puvis de Chavannes,
Klingers, Böcklins, Stucks, Schneiders; in music, the Wagners, Liszts,
Berliozes, Brahmses, and Richard Strausses, etc., and all that
immense mass of good-for-nothing imitators of these imitators,
become possible in our day.
As a good illustration of the harmful influence of criticism, take its
relation to Beethoven. Among his innumerable hasty productions
written to order, there are, notwithstanding their artificiality of form,
works of true art. But he grows deaf, cannot hear, and begins to
write invented, unfinished works, which are consequently often
meaningless and musically unintelligible. I know that musicians can
imagine sounds vividly enough, and can almost hear what they read,
but imaginary sounds can never replace real ones, and every
composer must hear his production in order to perfect it. Beethoven,
however, could not hear, could not perfect his work, and
consequently published productions which are artistic ravings. But
criticism, having once acknowledged him to be a great composer,
seizes on just these abnormal works with special gusto, and
searches for extraordinary beauties in them. And, to justify its
laudations (perverting the very meaning of musical art), it attributed
to music the property of describing what it cannot describe. And
imitators appear—an innumerable host of imitators of these
abnormal attempts at artistic productions which Beethoven wrote
when he was deaf.
Then Wagner appears, who at first in critical articles praises just
Beethoven’s last period, and connects this music with
Schopenhauer’s mystical theory that music is the expression of Will—
not of separate manifestations of will objectivised on various planes,
but of its very essence—which is in itself as absurd as this music of
Beethoven. And afterwards he composes music of his own on this
theory, in conjunction with another still more erroneous system of
the union of all the arts. After Wagner yet new imitators appear,
diverging yet further from art: Brahms, Richard Strauss, and others.
Such are the results of criticism. But the third condition of the
perversion of art, namely, art schools, is almost more harmful still.
As soon as art became, not art for the whole people but for a rich
class, it became a profession; as soon as it became a profession,
methods were devised to teach it; people who chose this profession
of art began to learn these methods, and thus professional schools
sprang up: classes of rhetoric or literature in the public schools,
academies for painting, conservatoires for music, schools for
dramatic art.
In these schools art is taught! But art is the transmission to others of
a special feeling experienced by the artist. How can this be taught in
schools?
No school can evoke feeling in a man, and still less can it teach him
how to manifest it in the one particular manner natural to him alone.
But the essence of art lies in these things.
The one thing these schools can teach is how to transmit feelings
experienced by other artists in the way those other artists
transmitted them. And this is just what the professional schools do
teach; and such instruction not only does not assist the spread of
true art, but, on the contrary, by diffusing counterfeits of art, does
more than anything else to deprive people of the capacity to
understand true art.
In literary art people are taught how, without having anything they
wish to say, to write a many-paged composition on a theme about
which they have never thought, and, moreover, to write it so that it
should resemble the work of an author admitted to be celebrated.
This is taught in schools.
In painting the chief training consists in learning to draw and paint
from copies and models, the naked body chiefly (the very thing that
is never seen, and which a man occupied with real art hardly ever
has to depict), and to draw and paint as former masters drew and
painted. The composition of pictures is taught by giving out themes
similar to those which have been treated by former acknowledged
celebrities.
So also in dramatic schools, the pupils are taught to recite
monologues just as tragedians, considered celebrated, declaimed
them.
It is the same in music. The whole theory of music is nothing but a
disconnected repetition of those methods which the acknowledged?
masters of composition made use of.
I have elsewhere quoted the profound remark of the Russian artist
Bruloff on art, but I cannot here refrain from repeating it, because
nothing better illustrates what can and what can not be taught in the
schools. Once when correcting a pupil’s study, Bruloff just touched it
in a few places, and the poor dead study immediately became
animated. “Why, you only touched it a wee bit, and it is quite
another thing!” said one of the pupils. “Art begins where the wee bit
begins,” replied Bruloff, indicating by these words just what is most
characteristic of art. The remark is true of all the arts, but its justice
is particularly noticeable in the performance of music. That musical
execution should be artistic, should be art, i.e. should infect, three
chief conditions must be observed,—there are many others needed
for musical perfection; the transition from one sound to another
must be interrupted or continuous; the sound must increase or
diminish steadily; it must be blended with one and not with another
sound; the sound must have this or that timbre, and much besides,
—but take the three chief conditions: the pitch, the time, and the
strength of the sound. Musical execution is only then art, only then
infects, when the sound is neither higher nor lower than it should
be, that is, when exactly the infinitely small centre of the required
note is taken; when that note is continued exactly as long as is
needed; and when the strength of the sound is neither more nor less
than is required. The slightest deviation of pitch in either direction,
the slightest increase or decrease in time, or the slightest
strengthening or weakening of the sound beyond what is needed,
destroys the perfection and, consequently, the infectiousness of the
work. So that the feeling of infection by the art of music, which
seems so simple and so easily obtained, is a thing we receive only
when the performer finds those infinitely minute degrees which are
necessary to perfection in music. It is the same in all arts: a wee bit
lighter, a wee bit darker, a wee bit higher, lower, to the right or the
left—in painting; a wee bit weaker or stronger in intonation, or a
wee bit sooner or later—in dramatic art; a wee bit omitted, over-
emphasised, or exaggerated—in poetry, and there is no contagion.
Infection is only obtained when an artist finds those infinitely minute
degrees of which a work of art consists, and only to the extent to
which he finds them. And it is quite impossible to teach people by
external means to find these minute degrees: they can only be
found when a man yields to his feeling. No instruction can make a
dancer catch just the tact of the music, or a singer or a fiddler take
exactly the infinitely minute centre of his note, or a sketcher draw of
all possible lines the only right one, or a poet find the only meet
arrangement of the only suitable words. All this is found only by
feeling. And therefore schools may teach what is necessary in order
to produce something resembling art, but not art itself.
The teaching of the schools stops there where the wee bit begins—
consequently where art begins.
Accustoming people to something resembling art, disaccustoms
them to the comprehension of real art. And that is how it comes
about that none are more dull to art than those who have passed
through the professional schools and been most successful in them.
Professional schools produce an hypocrisy of art precisely akin to
that hypocrisy of religion which is produced by theological colleges
for training priests, pastors, and religious teachers generally. As it is
impossible in a school to train a man so as to make a religious
teacher of him, so it is impossible to teach a man how to become an
artist.
Art schools are thus doubly destructive of art: first, in that they
destroy the capacity to produce real art in those who have the
misfortune to enter them and go through a 7 or 8 years’ course;
secondly, in that they generate enormous quantities of that
counterfeit art which perverts the taste of the masses and overflows
our world. In order that born artists may know the methods of the
various arts elaborated by former artists, there should exist in all
elementary schools such classes for drawing and music (singing)
that, after passing through them, every talented scholar may, by
using existing models accessible to all, be able to perfect himself in
his art independently.
These three conditions—the professionalisation of artists, art
criticism, and art schools—have had this effect that most people in
our times are quite unable even to understand what art is, and
accept as art the grossest counterfeits of it.
 CHAPTER XIII

To what an extent people of our circle and time have lost the
capacity to receive real art, and have become accustomed to accept
as art things that have nothing in common with it, is best seen from
the works of Richard Wagner, which have latterly come to be more
and more esteemed, not only by the Germans but also by the French
and the English, as the very highest art, revealing new horizons to
us.
The peculiarity of Wagner’s music, as is known, consists in this, that
he considered that music should serve poetry, expressing all the
shades of a poetical work.
The union of the drama with music, devised in the fifteenth century
in Italy for the revival of what they imagined to have been the
ancient Greek drama with music, is an artificial form which had, and
has, success only among the upper classes, and that only when
gifted composers, such as Mozart, Weber, Rossini, and others,
drawing inspiration from a dramatic subject, yielded freely to the
inspiration and subordinated the text to the music, so that in their
operas the important thing to the audience was merely the music on
a certain text, and not the text at all, which latter, even when it was
utterly absurd, as, for instance, in the Magic Flute, still did not
prevent the music from producing an artistic impression.
Wagner wishes to correct the opera by letting music submit to the
demands of poetry and unite with it. But each art has its own
definite realm, which is not identical with the realm of other arts, but
merely comes in contact with them; and therefore, if the
manifestation of, I will not say several, but even of two arts—the
dramatic and the musical—be united in one complete production,
then the demands of the one art will make it impossible to fulfil the
demands of the other, as has always occurred in the ordinary
operas, where the dramatic art has submitted to, or rather yielded
place to, the musical. Wagner wishes that musical art should submit
to dramatic art, and that both should appear in full strength. But this
is impossible, for every work of art, if it be a true one, is an
expression of intimate feelings of the artist, which are quite
exceptional, and not like anything else. Such is a musical production,
and such is a dramatic work, if they be true art. And therefore, in
order that a production in the one branch of art should coincide with
a production in the other branch, it is necessary that the impossible
should happen: that two works from different realms of art should
be absolutely exceptional, unlike anything that existed before, and
yet should coincide, and be exactly alike.
And this cannot be, just as there cannot be two men, or even two
leaves on a tree, exactly alike. Still less can two works from different
realms of art, the musical and the literary, be absolutely alike. If they
coincide, then either one is a work of art and the other a counterfeit,
or both are counterfeits. Two live leaves cannot be exactly alike, but
two artificial leaves may be. And so it is with works of art. They can
only coincide completely when neither the one nor the other is art,
but only cunningly devised semblances of it.
If poetry and music may be joined, as occurs in hymns, songs, and
romances—(though even in these the music does not follow the
changes of each verse of the text, as Wagner wants to, but the song
and the music merely produce a coincident effect on the mind)—this
occurs only because lyrical poetry and music have, to some extent,
one and the same aim: to produce a mental condition, and the
conditions produced by lyrical poetry and by music can, more or
less, coincide. But even in these conjunctions the centre of gravity
always lies in one of the two productions, so that it is one of them
that produces the artistic impression while the other remains
unregarded. And still less is it possible for such union to exist
between epic or dramatic poetry and music.
Moreover, one of the chief conditions of artistic creation is the
complete freedom of the artist from every kind of preconceived
demand. And the necessity of adjusting his musical work to a work
from another realm of art is a preconceived demand of such a kind
as to destroy all possibility of creative power; and therefore works of
this kind, adjusted to one another, are, and must be, as has always
happened, not works of art but only imitations of art, like the music
of a melodrama, signatures to pictures, illustrations, and librettos to
operas.
And such are Wagner’s productions. And a confirmation of this is to
be seen in the fact that Wagner’s new music lacks the chief
characteristic of every true work of art, namely, such entirety and
completeness that the smallest alteration in its form would disturb
the meaning of the whole work. In a true work of art—poem, drama,
picture, song, or symphony—it is impossible to extract one line, one
scene, one figure, or one bar from its place and put it in another,
without infringing the significance of the whole work; just as it is
impossible, without infringing the life of an organic being, to extract
an organ from one place and insert it in another. But in the music of
Wagner’s last period, with the exception of certain parts of little
importance which have an independent musical meaning, it is
possible to make all kinds of transpositions, putting what was in
front behind, and vice, versâ, without altering the musical sense.
And the reason why these transpositions do not alter the sense of
Wagner’s music is because the sense lies in the words and not in the
music.
The musical score of Wagner’s later operas is like what the result
would be should one of those versifiers—of whom there are now
many, with tongues so broken that they can write verses on any
theme to any rhymes in any rhythm, which sound as if they had a
meaning—conceive the idea of illustrating by his verses some
symphony or sonata of Beethoven, or some ballade of Chopin, in the
following manner. To the first bars, of one character, he writes verses
corresponding in his opinion to those first bars. Next come some
bars of a different character, and he also writes verses corresponding
in his opinion to them, but with no internal connection with the first
verses, and, moreover, without rhymes and without rhythm. Such a
production, without the music, would be exactly parallel in poetry to
what Wagner’s operas are in music, if heard without the words.
But Wagner is not only a musician, he is also a poet, or both
together; and therefore, to judge of Wagner, one must know his
poetry also—that same poetry which the music has to subserve. The
chief poetical production of Wagner is The Nibelung’s Ring. This
work has attained such enormous importance in our time, and has
such influence on all that now professes to be art, that it is
necessary for everyone to-day to have some idea of it. I have
carefully read through the four booklets which contain this work, and
have drawn up a brief summary of it, which I give in Appendix III. I
would strongly advise the reader (if he has not perused the poem
itself, which would be the best thing to do) at least to read my
account of it, so as to have an idea of this extraordinary work. It is a
model work of counterfeit art, so gross as to be even ridiculous.
But we are told that it is impossible to judge of Wagner’s works
without seeing them on the stage. The Second Day of this drama,
which, as I was told, is the best part of the whole work, was given in
Moscow last winter, and I went to see the performance.
When I arrived the enormous theatre was already filled from top to
bottom. There were Grand-Dukes, and the flower of the aristocracy,
of the merchant class, of the learned, and of the middle-class official
public. Most of them held the libretto, fathoming its meaning.
Musicians—some of them elderly, grey-haired men—followed the
music, score in hand. Evidently the performance of this work was an
event of importance.
I was rather late, but I was told that the short prelude, with which
the act begins, was of little importance, and that it did not matter
having missed it. When I arrived, an actor sat on the stage amid
decorations intended to represent a cave, and before something
which was meant to represent a smith’s forge. He was dressed in
trico-tights, with a cloak of skins, wore a wig and an artificial beard,
and with white, weak, genteel hands (his easy movements, and
especially the shape of his stomach and his lack of muscle revealed
the actor) beat an impossible sword with an unnatural hammer in a
way in which no one ever uses a hammer; and at the same time,
opening his mouth in a strange way, he sang something
incomprehensible. The music of various instruments accompanied
the strange sounds which he emitted. From the libretto one was able
to gather that the actor had to represent a powerful gnome, who
lived in the cave, and who was forging a sword for Siegfried, whom
he had reared. One could tell he was a gnome by the fact that the
actor walked all the time bending the knees of his trico-covered legs.
This gnome, still opening his mouth in the same strange way, long
continued to sing or shout. The music meanwhile runs over
something strange, like beginnings which are not continued and do
not get finished. From the libretto one could learn that the gnome is
telling himself about a ring which a giant had obtained, and which
the gnome wishes to procure through Siegfried’s aid, while Siegfried
wants a good sword, on the forging of which the gnome is occupied.
After this conversation or singing to himself has gone on rather a
long time, other sounds are heard in the orchestra, also like
something beginning and not finishing, and another actor appears,
with a horn slung over his shoulder, and accompanied by a man
running on all fours dressed up as a bear, whom he sets at the
smith-gnome. The latter runs away without unbending the knees of
his trico-covered legs. This actor with the horn represented the hero,
Siegfried. The sounds which were emitted in the orchestra on the
entrance of this actor were intended to represent Siegfried’s
character and are called Siegfried’s leit-motiv. And these sounds are
repeated each time Siegfried appears. There is one fixed
combination of sounds, or leit-motiv, for each character, and this leit-
motiv is repeated every time the person whom it represents
appears; and when anyone is mentioned the motiv is heard which
relates to that person. Moreover, each article also has its own leit-
motiv or chord. There is a motiv of the ring, a motiv of the helmet, a
motiv of the apple, a motiv of fire, spear, sword, water, etc.; and as
soon as the ring, helmet, or apple is mentioned, the motiv or chord
of the ring, helmet, or apple is heard. The actor with the horn opens
his mouth as unnaturally as the gnome, and long continues in a
chanting voice to shout some words, and in a similar chant Mime
(that is the gnome’s name) answers something or other to him. The
meaning of this conversation can only be discovered from the
libretto; and it is that Siegfried was brought up by the gnome, and
therefore, for some reason, hates him and always wishes to kill him.
The gnome has forged a sword for Siegfried, but Siegfried is
dissatisfied with it. From a ten-page conversation (by the libretto),
lasting half an hour and conducted with the same strange openings
of the mouth and chantings, it appears that Siegfried’s mother gave
birth to him in the wood, and that concerning his father all that is
known is that he had a sword which was broken, the pieces of which
are in Mime’s possession, and that Siegfried does not know fear and
wishes to go out of the wood. Mime, however, does not want to let
him go. During the conversation the music never omits, at the
mention of father, sword, etc., to sound the motive of these people
and things. After these conversations fresh sounds are heard—those
of the god Wotan—and a wanderer appears. This wanderer is the
god Wotan. Also dressed up in a wig, and also in tights, this god
Wotan, standing in a stupid pose with a spear, thinks proper to
recount what Mime must have known before, but what it is
necessary to tell the audience. He does not tell it simply, but in the
form of riddles which he orders himself to guess, staking his head
(one does not know why) that he will guess right. Moreover,
whenever the wanderer strikes his spear on the ground, fire comes
out of the ground, and in the orchestra the sounds of spear and of
fire are heard. The orchestra accompanies the conversation, and the
motive of the people and things spoken of are always artfully
intermingled. Besides this the music expresses feelings in the most
naïve manner: the terrible by sounds in the bass, the frivolous by
rapid touches in the treble, etc.
The riddles have no meaning except to tell the audience what the
nibelungs are, what the giants are, what the gods are, and what has
happened before. This conversation also is chanted with strangely
opened mouths and continues for eight libretto pages, and
correspondingly long on the stage. After this the wanderer departs,
and Siegfried returns and talks with Mime for thirteen pages more.
There is not a single melody the whole of this time, but merely
intertwinings of the leit-motive of the people and things mentioned.
The conversation tells that Mime wishes to teach Siegfried fear, and
that Siegfried does not know what fear is. Having finished this
conversation, Siegfried seizes one of the pieces of what is meant to
represent the broken sword, saws it up, puts it on what is meant to
represent the forge, melts it, and then forges it and sings: Heiho!
heiho! heiho! Ho! ho! Aha! oho! aha! Heiaho! heiaho! heiaho! Ho!
ho! Hahei! hoho! hahei! and Act I. finishes.
As far as the question I had come to the theatre to decide was
concerned, my mind was fully made up, as surely as on the question
of the merits of my lady acquaintance’s novel when she read me the
scene between the loose-haired maiden in the white dress and the
hero with two white dogs and a hat with a feather à la Guillaume
Tell.
From an author who could compose such spurious scenes, outraging
all æsthetic feeling, as those which I had witnessed, there was
nothing to be hoped; it may safely be decided that all that such an
author can write will be bad, because he evidently does not know
what a true work of art is. I wished to leave, but the friends I was
with asked me to remain, declaring that one could not form an
opinion by that one act, and that the second would be better. So I
stopped for the second act.
Act II., night. Afterwards dawn. In general the whole piece is
crammed with lights, clouds, moonlight, darkness, magic fires,
thunder, etc.
The scene represents a wood, and in the wood there is a cave. At
the entrance of the cave sits a third actor in tights, representing
another gnome. It dawns. Enter the god Wotan, again with a spear,
and again in the guise of a wanderer. Again his sounds, together
with fresh sounds of the deepest bass that can be produced. These
latter indicate that the dragon is speaking. Wotan awakens the
dragon. The same bass sounds are repeated, growing yet deeper
and deeper. First the dragon says, “I want to sleep,” but afterwards
he crawls out of the cave. The dragon is represented by two men; it
is dressed in a green, scaly skin, waves a tail at one end, while at
the other it opens a kind of crocodile’s jaw that is fastened on, and
from which flames appear. The dragon (who is meant to be dreadful,
and may appear so to five-year-old children) speaks some words in a
terribly bass voice. This is all so stupid, so like what is done in a
booth at a fair, that it is surprising that people over seven years of
age can witness it seriously; yet thousands of quasi-cultured people
sit and attentively hear and see it, and are delighted.
Siegfried, with his horn, reappears, as does Mime also. In the
orchestra the sounds denoting them are emitted, and they talk
about whether Siegfried does or does not know what fear is. Mime
goes away, and a scene commences which is intended to be most
poetical. Siegfried, in his tights, lies down in a would-be beautiful
pose, and alternately keeps silent and talks to himself. He ponders,
listens to the song of birds, and wishes to imitate them. For this
purpose he cuts a reed with his sword and makes a pipe. The dawn
grows brighter and brighter; the birds sing. Siegfried tries to imitate
the birds. In the orchestra is heard the imitation of birds, alternating
with sounds corresponding to the words he speaks. But Siegfried
does not succeed with his pipe-playing, so he plays on his horn
instead. This scene is unendurable. Of music, i.e. of art serving as a
means to transmit a state of mind experienced by the author, there
is not even a suggestion. There is something that is absolutely
unintelligible musically. In a musical sense a hope is continually
experienced, followed by disappointment, as if a musical thought
were commenced only to be broken off. If there are something like
musical commencements, these commencements are so short, so
encumbered with complications of harmony and orchestration and
with effects of contrast, are so obscure and unfinished, and what is
happening on the stage meanwhile is so abominably false, that it is
difficult even to perceive these musical snatches, let alone to be
infected by them. Above all, from the very beginning to the very
end, and in each note, the author’s purpose is so audible and visible,
that one sees and hears neither Siegfried nor the birds, but only a
limited, self-opinionated German of bad taste and bad style, who has
a most false conception of poetry, and who, in the rudest and most
primitive manner, wishes to transmit to me these false and mistaken
conceptions of his.
Everyone knows the feeling of distrust and resistance which is
always evoked by an author’s evident predetermination. A narrator
need only say in advance, Prepare to cry or to laugh, and you are
sure neither to cry nor to laugh. But when you see that an author
prescribes emotion at what is not touching but only laughable or
disgusting, and when you see, moreover, that the author is fully
assured that he has captivated you, a painfully tormenting feeling
results, similar to what one would feel if an old, deformed woman
put on a ball-dress and smilingly coquetted before you, confident of
your approbation. This impression was strengthened by the fact that
around me I saw a crowd of three thousand people, who not only
patiently witnessed all this absurd nonsense, but even considered it
their duty to be delighted with it.
I somehow managed to sit out the next scene also, in which the
monster appears, to the accompaniment of his bass notes
intermingled with the motiv of Siegfried; but after the fight with the
monster, and all the roars, fires, and sword-wavings, I could stand
no more of it, and escaped from the theatre with a feeling of
repulsion which, even now, I cannot forget.
Listening to this opera, I involuntarily thought of a respected, wise,
educated country labourer,—one, for instance, of those wise and
truly religious men whom I know among the peasants,—and I
pictured to myself the terrible perplexity such a man would be in
were he to witness what I was seeing that evening.
What would he think if he knew of all the labour spent on such a
performance, and saw that audience, those great ones of the earth,
—old, bald-headed, grey-bearded men, whom he had been
accustomed to respect,—sit silent and attentive, listening to and
looking at all these stupidities for five hours on end? Not to speak of
an adult labourer, one can hardly imagine even a child of over seven
occupying himself with such a stupid, incoherent fairy tale.
And yet an enormous audience, the cream of the cultured upper
classes, sits out five hours of this insane performance, and goes
away imagining that by paying tribute to this nonsense it has
acquired a fresh right to esteem itself advanced and enlightened.
I speak of the Moscow public. But what is the Moscow public? It is
but a hundredth part of that public which, while considering itself
most highly enlightened, esteems it a merit to have so lost the
capacity of being infected by art, that not only can it witness this
stupid sham without being revolted, but can even take delight in it.
In Bayreuth, where these performances were first given, people who
consider themselves finely cultured assembled from the ends of the
earth, spent, say £100 each, to see this performance, and for four
days running they went to see and hear this nonsensical rubbish,
sitting it out for six hours each day.
But why did people go, and why do they still go to these
performances, and why do they admire them? The question naturally
presents itself: How is the success of Wagner’s works to be
explained?
That success I explain to myself in this way: thanks to his
exceptional position in having at his disposal the resources of a king,
Wagner was able to command all the methods for counterfeiting art
which have been developed by long usage, and, employing these
methods with great ability, he produced a model work of counterfeit
art. The reason why I have selected his work for my illustration is,
that in no other counterfeit of art known to me are all the methods
by which art is counterfeited—namely, borrowings, imitation, effects,
and interestingness—so ably and powerfully united.
From the subject, borrowed from antiquity, to the clouds and the
risings of the sun and moon, Wagner, in this work, has made use of
all that is considered poetical. We have here the sleeping beauty,
and nymphs, and subterranean fires, and gnomes, and battles, and
swords, and love, and incest, and a monster, and singing-birds: the
whole arsenal of the poetical is brought into action.
Moreover, everything is imitative: the decorations are imitated and
the costumes are imitated. All is just as, according to the data
supplied by archæology, they would have been in antiquity. The very
sounds are imitative, for Wagner, who was not destitute of musical
talent, invented just such sounds as imitate the strokes of a hammer,
the hissing of molten iron, the singing of birds, etc.
Furthermore, in this work everything is in the highest degree striking
in its effects and in its peculiarities: its monsters, its magic fires, and
its scenes under water; the darkness in which the audience sit, the
invisibility of the orchestra, and the hitherto unemployed
combinations of harmony.
And besides, it is all interesting. The interest lies not only in the
question who will kill whom, and who will marry whom, and who is
whose son, and what will happen next?—the interest lies also in the
relation of the music to the text. The rolling waves of the Rhine—
now how is that to be expressed in music? An evil gnome appears—
how is the music to express an evil gnome?—and how is it to
express the sensuality of this gnome? How will bravery, fire, or
apples be expressed in music? How are the leit-motive of the people
speaking to be interwoven with the leit-motive of the people and
objects about whom they speak? Besides, the music has a further
interest. It diverges from all formerly accepted laws, and most
unexpected and totally new modulations crop up (as is not only
possible but even easy in music having no inner law of its being);
the dissonances are new, and are allowed in a new way—and this,
too, is interesting.
And it is this poeticality, imitativeness, effectfulness, and
interestingness which, thanks to the peculiarities of Wagner’s talent
and to the advantageous position in which he was placed, are in
these productions carried to the highest pitch of perfection, that so
act on the spectator, hypnotising him as one would be hypnotised
who should listen for several consecutive hours to the ravings of a
maniac pronounced with great oratorical power.
People say, “You cannot judge without having seen Wagner
performed at Bayreuth: in the dark, where the orchestra is out of
sight concealed under the stage, and where the performance is
brought to the highest perfection.” And this just proves that we have
here no question of art, but one of hypnotism. It is just what the
spiritualists say. To convince you of the reality of their apparitions,
they usually say, “You cannot judge; you must try it, be present at
several séances,” i.e. come and sit silent in the dark for hours
together in the same room with semi-sane people, and repeat this
some ten times over, and you shall see all that we see.
Yes, naturally! Only place yourself in such conditions, and you may
see what you will. But this can be still more quickly attained by
getting drunk or smoking opium. It is the same when listening to an
opera of Wagner’s. Sit in the dark for four days in company with
people who are not quite normal, and, through the auditory nerves,
subject your brain to the strongest action of the sounds best
adapted to excite it, and you will no doubt be reduced to an
abnormal condition and be enchanted by absurdities. But to attain
this end you do not even need four days; the five hours during
which one “day” is enacted, as in Moscow, are quite enough. Nor are
five hours needed; even one hour is enough for people who have no
clear conception of what art should be, and who have come to the
conclusion in advance that what they are going to see is excellent,
and that indifference or dissatisfaction with this work will serve as a
proof of their inferiority and lack of culture.
I observed the audience present at this representation. The people
who led the whole audience and gave the tone to it were those who
had previously been hypnotised, and who again succumbed to the
hypnotic influence to which they were accustomed. These
hypnotised people, being in an abnormal condition, were perfectly
enraptured. Moreover, all the art critics, who lack the capacity to be
infected by art and therefore always especially prize works like
Wagner’s opera where it is all an affair of the intellect, also, with
much profundity, expressed their approval of a work affording such
ample material for ratiocination. And following these two groups
went that large city crowd (indifferent to art, with their capacity to
be infected by it perverted and partly atrophied), headed by the
princes, millionaires, and art patrons, who, like sorry harriers, keep
close to those who most loudly and decidedly express their opinion.
“Oh yes, certainly! What poetry! Marvellous! Especially the birds!”
“Yes, yes! I am quite vanquished!” exclaim these people, repeating
in various tones what they have just heard from men whose opinion
appears to them authoritative.
If some people do feel insulted by the absurdity and spuriousness of
the whole thing, they are timidly silent, as sober men are timid and
silent when surrounded by tipsy ones.
And thus, thanks to the masterly skill with which it counterfeits art
while having nothing in common with it, a meaningless, coarse,
spurious production finds acceptance all over the world, costs
millions of roubles to produce, and assists more and more to pervert
the taste of people of the upper classes and their conception of what
is art.
 CHAPTER XIV

I know that most men—not only those considered clever, but even
those who are very clever and capable of understanding most
difficult scientific, mathematical or philosophic problems—can very
seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be
such as to oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have
formed, perhaps with much difficulty—conclusions of which they are
proud, which they have taught to others, and on which they have
built their lives. And therefore I have little hope that what I adduce
as to the perversion of art and taste in our society will be accepted
or even seriously considered. Nevertheless, I must state fully the
inevitable conclusion to which my investigation into the question of
art has brought me. This investigation has brought me to the
conviction that almost all that our society considers to be art, good
art, and the whole of art, far from being real and good art, and the
whole of art, is not even art at all, but only a counterfeit of it. This
position, I know, will seem very strange and paradoxical; but if we
once acknowledge art to be a human activity by means of which
some people transmit their feelings to others (and not a service of
Beauty, nor a manifestation of the Idea, and so forth), we shall
inevitably have to admit this further conclusion also. If it is true that
art is an activity by means of which one man having experienced a
feeling intentionally transmits it to others, then we have inevitably to
admit further, that of all that among us is termed the art of the
upper classes—of all those novels, stories, dramas, comedies,
pictures, sculptures, symphonies, operas, operettas, ballets, etc.,
which profess to be works of art—scarcely one in a hundred
thousand proceeds from an emotion felt by its author, all the rest
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