Meet The Founders
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
It’s become rather common in the US, for those who aren’t happy with the direction the country seems to be headed, to invoke the Founding Fathers and their principles and ideals.
You know what I mean. During a political discussion, someone will say. “Well, that’s not what the Founding Fathers intended”. Or “The Founding Fathers were afraid of a strong central government” or “The Founding Fathers wanted everyone to be treated equal”.
The people who say these things consider themselves Patriots, and are dedicated to a country where the principles of the Founders are honored and practiced. And I agree. They are Patriots. A person who works hard to make our country better can’t be described otherwise.
Unfortunately, most of these people are the product of the US school system, in which a glorified, idealistic picture of the Founders is presented. You can just imagine them in their powdered wigs, sharing fraternal handshakes while patting each other on the back and perhaps sharing a drink or two while they discuss the new government in great agreement. Well, folks, I’m here to tell you – that’s not how it was. Actually, the Founders were at each others throats. Even members of the same party couldn’t agree. And many were far more worried about their individual state than the unity of the country.
Anyone who paints the Founders all with the same brush is very naive and misinformed about American Colonial history. And anyone who claims to know what the Founders wanted, intended, feared, or otherwise share their thoughts should be disregarded. There’s no way to know what someone is thinking, unless they tell you, or record it in some way.
To start with, there were thousands of Founders. To me, the Founders of this country were all the leaders, soldiers, financiers, diplomats and others that contributed to the cause of Independence. Everyone who melted lead for bullets, contributed supplies for the army, or helped the cause in any other way. These are the Founders.
The term “Founding Fathers” isn’t even accurate, since many of the Founders were women. Some were children. They all contributed to the formation of the country, and are parts of its foundation.
But I think most Americans today, when they think of the Founders, see the leaders of the revolutionary movement, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Framers of the Constitution, and the early government leaders. We know the names of the famous historical figures, and those that signed the Declaration and Constitution.
So lets see if we can get some insight into the thoughts of the Founders. We can’t read their minds, so we will have to base our deductions on what they did or wrote, and the laws they passed. It should be reasonable to assume that they lived their lives according to their principles, and that the laws they passed reflected the kind of country they wanted to live in, right?
So, to start out, there’s that pesky slavery thing. The Declaration says all men are created equal. The Constitution says that slaves are only 3/5 of a man. Oops. One principle out the window.
‘No taxation without representation’ was the battle cry at the Boston Tea Party. Yet the Founders saw fit to restrict voting privileges to free white males who could pay the poll tax. Women and free blacks were taxed, but could not vote.
Alexander Hamilton was the first politician to get involved in a sex scandal, paying a man, James Reynolds to “look the other way” while he banged Reynolds wife Maria. Hamilton had a wife and children at the time.
Many of the Founders, especially those from the south, themselves were slaveholders.
Thomas Jefferson had at least one child with his teenage slave, Sally Hemings.
And we can all be proud that the 3rd VP of the US, Aaron Burr, himself a Founder, murdered another Founder, a Mr Hamilton, in a duel. He ever stood trial.
And of course, there were the ever popular Alien and Sedition Acts. Passed in 1798, and signed by one of the most famous Founders, President John Adams. They authorized deportation of any alien deemed “dangerous” by the government, or any alien who is a citizen of a country we are at war with, without a hearing or trial. They also made it illegal to publish “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the government or its officials.
Well, so much for not wanting a strong central government, and so much for Freedom of Speech.
Yes, real history shows that the Founders were not the perfect guys that the textbooks depict. They were great men, yes. But they were men. They realized they were not perfect. They realized that as the world changes, governments need to change. They realized that they would make mistakes, and that the country would learn from them. So they gave the country the greatest gift of all: A means for our government to grow and adapt – Article 5 of the US Constitution.
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