The Founding Fathers

I just finished reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow which was not only a very thorough and even handed treatment of Mr. Hamilton but also shed more light on John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Having now read a number of biographies about the founders, including John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson along with 1776 and Founding Brothers, a fairly consistent set of images of the founders emerges from these books and their various authors. Certainly these were men with feet of clay, and while they were all men of high principles they varied widely on matters of faith, fidelity to their spouses, treatment of their political adversaries, slavery, and more. Many of them, including Hamilton and Jefferson, left their families deeply in debt when they died. Several, including Jefferson, Hamilton and Franklin, had trouble controlling their lusts. Several, including Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson could be vindictive, spiteful, and full of rage in their political dealings. Although he was the least educated, least travelled, and least colorful of the bunch, Washington stands out as the one consistently in control of his temper, his passions, his money, his family life, and his decisions. He was the one most likely to see the strengths and weaknesses of all the other founders. He set the example of freeing his slaves which Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe could not bring themselves to do. After Washington's death, Hamilton seemed to lose some of the self-control and restraint he had showed until then, likely because of the influence Washington had upon him. While not a man making a lot of show of his faith, Washington seems to have been true to the faith. After his death, the partisanship that followed resulted in libel and slander that would more than rival the mud slinging we saw in the recent presidential campaign, which had been much more restrained while Washington remained. Washington stands out in this crowd of founders, not because of his intellect, his writing, his speeches, or even his military campaigns. He stands out primarily for his character and self-mastery. One has to think it was more than just his own personality at work here, that this was indeed the hand of Providence upon him.

The other characters that stand out in these books are Eliza Hamilton and Abigail Adams. The picture of both that emerges are women of serene and strong faith who support, defend, forgive, and encourage their husbands despite the evident failings of those men. They suffer all the slurs that were launched at their husbands and provided refuge and support while taking on much of the load of supporting their family while their husbands focused on the country and were often gone for months at a time. These two were clearly exceptional human beings.

The more one learns about Jefferson, on the other hand, the less one admires him. He is clearly the most disappointing of the founders and the least consistent with his own avowed values on matters of family, morality, freedom, and speaking the truth about his political foes. He and Hamilton emerge as tragic figures, Hamilton dying in a duel as a result of his own overblown sense of 'honor' and Jefferson so consumed by his own selfishness and ambition that he betrays his own lofty writing about freedom to maintain his lifestyle by slaves, consistently hides behind others in his malicious attacks on political foes, sires children by his slave, refuses to recognize the truth about the evil in the French Revolution, and leaves his family deeply in debt upon his death. All of this on top of his confused views of Christianity make Jefferson the most disappointing of the founders.

All of these books put the recent presidential campaigns into context. The personal attacks, the partisanship, the revelations of personal moral character and judgement that are disappointing are nothing new. Let us hope that Providence has a Washington out there somewhere for our time as well.