04 Jul Celebrating Our Founding Fathers
Imagine a man who professes over and over his unending love for a woman but who knows nothing of where she was born or who her parents were or where she went to school or what her life had been until he came along–and furthermore, doesn’t care to learn. What would you think of such a person? Yet we appear to have an unending supply of patriots who know nothing of the history of this country, nor are they interested…. I feel sorry for anyone who misses the experience of history, the horizons of history. We think little of those who, given the chance to travel, go nowhere. We depracate provincialism. But it is possible to be as provincial in time as it is in space. Because you were born into this particular era doesn’t mean it has to be the limit of your experience. Move about in time, go places. Why restrict your circle of acquaintances to only those who occupy the same stage we call the present?
On this day of celebration, I found these wonderful words of wisdom from David McCullough in his book Brave Companions (pp. 222-23). I fully share his sentiments. Consequently, one of my goals in life is to become well acquainted with the lives of every major Founding Father of these great and glorious United States. I feel as though I am only just beginning, although in recent years I have read brilliant biographies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Ben Franklin (not to mention biographies of other great leaders of more recent vintage). I will soon make my way through a few others (e.g., Madison and Marshall) before deciding where to turn next.
Why do I do this? I guess I love to travel through time as much as space. And what better place to time travel than the late 18th century of these United States to visit these statesmen?
Do you have the same interest? And if so, who do you favor? Who is your favorite Founding Father?
I rather unreservedly admire them all and can hardly entertain the thought of having to choose a ‘favorite’ (although I know least about John Marshall). Any vestiges of suspicion or prejudice I once held against Alexander Hamilton were thoroughly exorcised by Chernow’s remarkable biography. Indeed, we’re blessed with an abundance of fine biographies of these men, but I wonder if there’s not a wee bit of the hagiographic here (which is perhaps fine for early lessons in civics). As a U.S. citizen, I’m curious what those outside our shores think of them as well.
The New York Times has a good op-ed on “Spinning the Revolution” by François Furstenberg that discusses the “cult of the founding fathers.” It is “easy to forget that once there was a time when the Declaration of Independence was not considered sacred, and when the founding fathers were viewed simply as men, rather than as gods to be worshipped or myths to be debunked.”
Well I checked Ben Franklin for the poll, but it’s a 50/50 split with Tom Paine.
Charles,
That most ardent of democratic revolutionaries is well-remembered: after all, you’ve proven to be a ‘Paine in the arse’ to not a few lacking a deep, abiding and principled appreciation of our democratic values and goals, methods and processes….
Patrick Henry.
How is it possible that Button Gwinnett didn’t make the list?
Call it provincialism if you like, but some folks happen to be happy with the here and now, more or less. By couching his fair complaint against willful ignorance in terms of a disinclination to travel through time and space, McCullough sounds just a bit anxious about his present circle of acquaintances. More to the point, though, can’t we dispense with the rather patronizing (and paternalistic) first line about some daffy idealized love of a man for a woman? The implication is that the Founding Fathers’ patriotism–there’s patriarchy lurking not far from the surface–was genuine by virtue of their secure knowledge of the woman they unendlessly loved. Kinda weird.
I would suggest James Wilson. Not only was he the great founding theorist of popular sovereignty, whose Statehouse speech in PA was arguably the tipping point in the ratification of the Constitution, but also he was a great supporter of customary international law. In fact, he suggested it was always binding on the United States, as on his view neither the federal nor the state governments were sovereign.
Let’s hear it for Founding Mothers! I’ll start with Abigail Adams, without whom John would still have been stuck in Braintree.