Henry Jones Ford

Henry Jones Ford (1851 - 1925) was a political scientist, journalist, university professor, and government official.

Ford worked as a managing editor and editorial writer from 1872 to 1905, at six different newspapers in three cities (Baltimore, New York and Pittsburgh).

Later returning to Baltimore (his hometown), Ford taught at Johns Hopkins University, and afterwards taught at the University of Pennsylvania. He later took a job as professor of politics at Princeton University, at the request of the university's then-president, Woodrow Wilson.

Ford's association with Wilson would take him also into politics. When Wilson became governor of New Jersey, he appointed Ford Commissioner of Banking and Insurance; after Wilson became president, Ford was sent to the Philippines on a special mission, reporting directly to the president, and toward the end of Wilson's presidency Ford was named to a position on the Interstate Commerce Commission. Their association would also result in Ford's book Woodrow Wilson, the Man and His Work, which was an account of Wilson's experience on the presidential campaign trail.

Ford served as president of the American Political Science Association from 1918 to 1919.

Quote

"The constitutional ideal is noble; but the politicians are vile. If only the checks could be made more effective, if only a just balance of power could be established beyond the strength of the politicians to disarrange ... the constitution would work perfectly."

Selected works

The works marked with (e-book) are freely availables from Project Gutenberg:

• The Rise and Growth of American Politics: A Sketch of Constitutional Development (1898)
• The Cost of Our National Government: A Study in Political Pathology (1910)
• The Natural History of the State: An Introduction to Political Science (1915)
• The Scotch-Irish in America (1915; ISBN 0-7812-6080-9)
• Woodrow Wilson, the Man and His Work: A Biographical Study (1916)
• Washington and His Colleagues: A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall of Federalism (1918; ISBN 1-932109-14-5; e-book)
• The Cleveland Era: A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics (1918; ISBN 1-4043-4415-2; e-book)
• Alexander Hamilton (1920)
• Representative Government (1924)