My sixteen year old had to read this book for school. It is one of the best I have read and definitely not what I would think High School'ers would read although my Jr. College was like a big High school so maybe times have changed. It has so many big words in it I love it and it was very educational. So let me share a few of the things I have learned.
Founding Brothers
The Founding Brothers the book focuses on is George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. It begins with the American Revolution being the beginning of the Democratic Experiment. Could a Republic work in governing large populated areas rather than just small states? The forming of America happened in a revolutionary manner rather than evolutionary because the decisive events that shaped our country take place with dynamic intensity during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. With the American Revolution as with all revolutions different factions came together to throw off the government rule at the time and develop a new government based on a republic where the people have the rule. What happened after that moment was a ongoing debate of the two main factions that had come together one was individual rule or state rule and the other was the federal rule. This debate was institutionalized in parties and has been continuing, except for the civil war, without violence for over 200 years. Its term today would be the Liberal verses Conservative. George Washington believed in the idea of popular Sovereignty where the people hold the power in government. The benefit is that we have this debate in the two party system of what interpretation of the constitution. When a party gets too much power and begins pulling us one way that the other party seems to rise up and bring us back toward the middle. One of the "unseemly features" of the Constitutional Convention was the conundrum the insoluble political problem namely that it purported to coerce obedience to national laws but remain true to the original " spirit of '76" which abhorred such political power. It is interesting that "American" originally meant someone inferior and "democrat" meant one who panders to the mindless and crude whims of the masses. However it seems to me that the masses do not like extremes and would rather our country stay in the middle of the ongoing debate but, whether we like it or not we have steadily moved to more government control or the liberal side of the argument.
The assets that America had at the time were a beautiful continent, a youthful population, a broad distribution of property, and George Washington. Their liabilities were mostly slavery. John Marshall the Author of History of the American Revolution saw the liberal movement of Alexander Hamilton and the federalists as a liberal movement. Mercy Otis Warren who wrote The Life of George Washington depicts the American Revolution as a deep seeded liberation movement from European Monarchy and Aristocracy. In a nutshell the book summarizes several points. First, that the achievement of the revolutionary generation was a collective enterprise from multiple factions. Second, The founders new each other and had a rivalry and friendship. Third, they managed to avoid the slavery issue. Fourth, the founding fathers new they were going to be followed by posterity and sometimes wrote letters for such a reason.
The Duel
Alexander Hamilton had a duel with Aaron Burr because of political attacks he made on Burr's character specifically about the changing political views Burr seemed to generate. The duel was held on a ledge and from the letters from Hamilton he never intended to shoot the first two rounds yet he put on his spectacles. Hamilton was shot fatally on the first volley and both guns discharged. There is evidence that Burr did not mean to kill Hamilton one because he shot him in the hip and that was one of the favorite targets in a duel when one did not want to kill the other. Second Burr had a desire to talk to Hamilton when he went down. Because Burr demanded a complete disavow of all the criticisms that Hamilton had made Hamilton could not back out of the duel without lying because he admits to the accusations of Burrs Character and does so with his blood. Hamilton believed burr was a true politician telling people what they wanted to hear and changing sides. He was looking for power and at the time the young United States could not survive corrupt of incompetent officials very well. The Duel ended Hamilton's life and as much as I don't like him he did a honor and died for what he believed. Aaron Burr's political career was also ruined. He had almost made it to president but, his career was essentially over now and in my mind it was a blessing because he did appear to be a man without principles.
The Dinner
Alexander Hamilton came up with a plan to nationalize the states debts. He wanted to recover public credit and the assumption of state debts was key to his financial plan for the new Republic. James Madison blocked this key provision. Thomas Jefferson came onto the scene and invited them both to dinner to discuss a compromise. Madison needed to go along with assumption of state debts and Hamilton needed to support the Headquarters of the new government to be on the Potomac. Two years afterward, Jefferson confided in Washington that Madison was right and that night was the biggest Political mistake of his life. Hamilton was trying to unravel the tangled mess of the economy and put the Country are surer financial footing by recovering public credit. James Madison was not so much worried about the economic issue of assumption as he was concerned about the power of the federal government over the state government. It would require states to trust their fate to the collective wisdom and virtue of a central government. The word consolidation brought up the ideological fear that the state governments would be consumed by the federal government. Hamilton on the other hand believed that the constitution gave the new government powers competent to calling for the resources of the community. Assumption was not a plot to destroy the political integrity of the states but to consolidate their debts and nationalize the economy for the benefit of all. Hamilton believed that concentration of capital in the hands of a select few who would invest the money and not spend it was channeling their talent for the economic growth of the country. Hamilton believed the urban elite, merchants, bankers, and business leaders were the central figures in the emergent American society. These were the kind of people who rescued him from obscurity as a youth. Here was the problem because Madison and those he represented believed that property was the measurement of wealth in America. Madison was given the title "Big Knife" for cutting deals with congress. So thru this secret meeting of Hamilton and Madison at Jefferson's house assumption of state debts by the federal government (Virginia owed as much as taxes collected so it was a wash) and the Headquarters of the American government was moved to the Potomac. The benefit from the Countries capital being on the Potomac is that the financial capital and the government capital were in two different places. If this deal had not happened we would have had Washington dc in Philadelphia just think of that!
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