In this essay I wish to address a common fallacy often put forward by conservative politicians that the "Founding Fathers" as a whole supported the platform that is currently advocated by the far right wing of the Republican party. This platform generally consists of opposition to a strong central government, support of religion in government and state-supported institutions (e.g. prayer in school) and opposition to federal income taxes. The main fallacy is the view that all of the men who worked and fought to establish the American nation and its republican form of government were in agreement in what they believed and supported. As I will show, the "Founding Fathers" held diverse philosophies that ranged from support of states’ rights to support of strong central government, from opposition to taxes to support of a progressive system of income tax as a way of addressing social ills, and from a strongly religious to a strongly atheist point of view. Any attempt to portray the "Founding Fathers" as holding a set, conservative viewpoint ignores the diverse philosophies that went into the establishment of the American system of government.
I will give brief descriptions of the lives and political ideas of a handful of early American patriots, all of whom participated in some way in the philosophical and ideological groundwork on which the Revolution and the American nation were based.
Thomas Paine
Paine was born in 1737 in Thetford, England, to an Anglican mother and a Quaker father. Paine met Benjamin Franklin in London and, on Franklin's advice, immigrated to Philadelphia in 1774. Soon after he published an article, "African Slavery in America," in which he condemned the practice of slavery.
Paine published his most famous work, Common Sense, on January 10, 1776. This essy argued that the relationship between the American colonies and Great Britain was one sided, with the latter deriving all the benefits and America receiving nothing in return. Given this premise, Paine argued that common sense called for the colonies to declare independence and establish a republican government of their own.
After the War of Independence Paine worked for the benefit of poor soldiers, but faced poverty himself. In 1787 he returned to Great Britain. In 1791 and 1792 he published The Rights of Man, wherein he advocated a republican form of government and a system of progressive income taxes to address the problems he saw in European government. These same problems were ones that led to the collapse of the French monarchy and the French revolution. He was thus supportive of the French revolution and was elected a deputy to the National Convention in France where he supported the moderate Girondist faction.
His moderate position and his favoring the exile rather than execution for King Louis XVI offended Robespierre and his more radical faction, and he was imprisoned from December 1793 until November 1794. After the fall of Robespierre Paine regained his National Convention seat.
He began writing his book The Age of Reason while he was in prison and continued it through 1807. This book opposed organized religion, based on the religious oppression it produced. In it Paine did not advocate atheism, but his book was nevertheless seen as supporting atheism and this resulted in Paine’s alienation from his supporters in both France and in America. He died in 1809.
Thomas Paine provided logical arguments in support of both the American and the French Revolutions. He envisioned government as secular and its role as including the protection of the poor and weak. He was also an early American opponent of slavery.
Click Here to Read Thomas Paine's Essays
George Washington
George Washington was an uninspired, but dogged general during the French-Indian (Seven Years) and Revolutionary wars. His main innovation was the adoption of Indian-style tactics against the British troops that allowed him to keep the war going despite being outnumbered, out supplied and out gunned by the British. His efforts would have failed, however, if French intervention had not tipped the balance of the war to America’s favor.
When the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution in 1788, George Washington was elected America’s first president. He thus in many ways defined the presidency even more than did the Constitution itself. He established the concept of a Presidential Cabinet, an institution not outlined in the Constitution. He balanced the partisan forces of Congress, thus postponing the establishment of the two-party, divisive system that is so characteristic of American politics. Washington supported several centralizing ideas proposed by Hamilton including a funded national debt, the creation of the Bank of the United States, and excise taxes and import duties designed to pay the interest on the new national debt. In foreign and trade affairs, however, he favored Jefferson’s more hands-off policies. The split between Jefferson and Hamilton, however, revolved around more than what we would see as conservative versus liberal fiscal ideology. Hamilton also favored relations with Britain while Jefferson favored relations with France. The outbreak of war between revolutionary France and a coalition led by Britain in 1793 forced Washington to decide between these rival policies, finally choosing to favor Britain in Jay's Treaty of 1795.
Washington was well aware of his role in defining the American presidency. In his farewell address he warned Americans to avoid entangling foreign alliances that might draw America into a war not of its making as well as to avoid divisive party politics.
Washington is such an icon of America that it is hard to objectively assess his presidency. He was never a strong leader and contributed little to the ideological formation of the American system of government, but he nevertheless established the presidency as a powerful figurehead that represented American dignity and unity. In many ways, his dignity and aloofness is seen by Americans as an ideal to which all other Presidents have been compared. This leads Americans to expect more from their leaders than citizens of other nations expect from their leaders. This is well illustrated by the brouhaha over Clinton’s sex life that was incomprehensible to the citizens of most other nations.
Click Here to Read More About George Washington
Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton was born in the West Indies in 1757, the illegitimate son of James Hamilton, a Scottish trader, and Rachel Faucett Lavien.
Hamilton was one of the main authors of The Federalist Papers, which advocated a strong centralized government as opposed to the weak confederation of semi-independent states that had been formed following the Revolution. As part of his ideology he went so far as advocating a life term for the presidency similar to what we have for Supreme Court justices. Hamilton worked to secure the ratification of the Constitution in his state, New York. It was for this purpose that he, John Jay and James Madison wrote the essays that were subsequently collected and published under the title of The Federalist.
Shortly after the establishment of the new government in 1789, President Washington appointed Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury. American finances were still in disarray from the disruptions caused by independence itself as well as the ravages of the war that was necessary to secure that independence. Hamilton advocated the funding of national and foreign debts of the United States, as well as federal assumption of the states' revolutionary debts. He also advocated the establishment of a national bank and protectionist tariffs. Most of his policies were adopted by Congress.
Hamilton fared less well under Washington’s successor, President John Adams, who argued constantly with Hamilton. Hamilton urged Adams to strengthen the federal government through a standing army (in preference to the ineffective militia), the national bank and the Alien and Sedition Acts. This divide in the Federalist party led to its defeat by the Republican party in 1800. However, the election of 1800 had to be decided in the House of Representatives because Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had received an equal number of votes in the electoral college. Hamilton supported Jefferson over Burr which led to his murder by Burr in 1804.
Hamilton falls into the more extreme end of "centralist" policies, especially in fiscal matters. But in most areas, his view of government’s role in the economy as well as the standing army has become the standard for America and Western Europe. His ideals were those very ideals that libertarians and the more extreme Republicans most oppose. In one area Hamilton overreached what modern Americans would see as appropriate—his advocacy of the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts gave government the power to limit the freedom of expression of Americans and is comparable to the American anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950’s and to Nixon’s paranoid methods of running his administration.
Click Here to Read More About Alexander Hamilton
John Adams:
John Adams was born in1735, in the colony of Massachusetts and graduated Harvard College 1755. As the colonies moved slowly towards rebellion, Adams argued extensively against what he saw as British tyranny. He argued that the British Empire was essentially comprised of near-independent nations and could not arbitrarily be ruled from England. Interestingly, despite his pro-independence stance, he was a lawyer for British soldiers charged with the death of five colonists in the Boston Massacre and he successfully fought for their acquittal using, in essence, a self-defense argument.
Adams was concerned with establishing a legal and moral basis for the establishment of an independent America and his essay, Thoughts on Government, influenced the writing of the state constitutions of Virginia, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. During the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, however, a rivalry developed between Adams and Jefferson that was to last many years and would shape American party politics in its earliest phase.
Adams’ main political philosophy was that legal restraints were necessary on the exercise of power and that government was necessary for the restraint of the evil tendencies of human nature. He viewed laws as a necessary method for limiting the social ills that human nature produced. This placed him solidly in the Federalist camp.
Adams was Vice President under Washington and was elected later as America’s second President. His administration was hampered by international tensions, primarily with France, as well as by intra-Federalist conflicts. Alexander Hamilton emerged as a rival to Adams for control of the Federalist party. Hamilton’s faction legislated the Alien and Sedition Acts which were essentially aimed at hurting Republican opposition. This was a low point in American party politics seldom matched save, perhaps, for McCarthy’s witch hunts and Nixon’s enemies lists. Adams went along with the Sedition Act but refused to enforce the Alien Act.
The rivalry between Adams and Hamilton split the Federalists, leading to the election of Jefferson as the third American President. Adams was later influential in the establishment of the Whig party which replaced the Federalists as the main opposition to the Republicans.
Adams was a more moderate "centralist" than Hamilton and thus, even more than Hamilton himself, represents a political ideology that is comparable to today’s reality. Unfortunately, as President his effectiveness was hampered not only by opposition from the Republican camp but also by tensions between his own moderate Federalist faction and the more extreme Federalist faction of Alexander Hamilton.
Click Here to Read More About John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was born in 1743 in the British colony of Virginia. Jefferson grew up with a strong interest in the ideals of the enlightenment, studying botany, geology, Greek and Latin. Jefferson was also interested in law and was admitted to the bar in 1767. In 1768 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Jefferson, like Thomas Paine, played a strong ideological role in the revolution through his drafting of the Declaration of Independence. This document gave a moral and well-reasoned underpinning to the revolution. His basic argument was that a government, in this case Britain, that acted in a tyrannical fashion would in effect lose its right to govern and the people governed then had the right to dissolve their bonds to that government and then form their own system of government.
Jefferson then played a strong role in Virginia politics during the war years and during the period of the Articles of Confederation. He successfully proposed the disestablishment of the Anglican church in Virginia and a reform of the Virginia criminal code. He unsuccessfully advocated a public school system and government-financed library. He also drafted the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom which prohibited any state financing of religious instruction (he would thus probably be opposed to school vouchers for religious schools). In the process he expounded on the dangers of state sponsorship of religious institutions.
During the Washington Administration Jefferson was Secretary of State and he advocated, unsuccessfully, a pro-French/anti-British policy. His opposition to Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Party led him to run for president with the Republican party (actually the precursor to both today’s Democratic and Republican parties). He came in second, giving him the Vice Presidency during the Federalist administration of John Adams. As such he stood up against some of the more oppressive policies of the federalists (e.g. the Alien and Sedition Acts).
He and Aaron Burr tied in the electoral college in the 1800 election, leading to a decision in his favor in the House of Representatives. Interestingly, his former rival, Hamilton, supported his candidacy. As president, Jefferson took a strong expansionist view, purchasing the Louisiana Territory from a cash-hungry France. He also supported a strong, independent Federal Judiciary and tried once more to take a pro-French position during the Napoleonic wars. All this last did was to devastate the American economy without helping France in any way.
In retirement he had little effect on American politics and seemed to be wrestling internally over the issue of slavery which he seems to have seen as being wrong yet this didn’t stop him from owning slaves himself.
Perhaps more than any other "Founding Father," Thomas Jefferson has had the most effect not only on American political ideology, but also on its practice. It is easy to place Jefferson in the "anti-government" camp of modern libertarians and the more extreme Republicans. In many ways he may well have many philosophical similarities with modern libertarians, but his secular leanings would put him in strong opposition to the modern Republican party. His support of public schools and libraries, on the other hand, would limit his affinities with modern libertarians. Ultimately, though, his actual administration, perhaps unintentionally, did a fair amount to strengthen the centralist tendencies initiated by the Federalists. His policies as president were strong and tended to inadvertently strengthen the power of Federal government.
Click Here to Read More About Thomas Jefferson
James Madison:
James Madison was an early and ardent proponent of independence. He served on the Virginia legislature where he was a main supporter of Jefferson’s Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom which legislated the separation of church and state. He later was also an ardent proponent of a stronger central government when it became clear that the Articles of Confederation were not going to work. Madison drafted the Virginia Plan which served as a blueprint for the Constitution, including a system of checks and balances, a strong executive branch and a Federal judiciary which could rule on the legitimacy of state laws. He wrote, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the essays known as the Federalist Papers.
In order to counter an accusation that the Constitution failed to protect the rights of the individual, Madison, as a member of Congress, sponsored the Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution. This was part of a compromise he made with Anti-Federalists whereby they would support the Constitution in return for a better guarantee of rights through the first 10 amendments. Many libertarians view Madison and his Bill of Rights to be the embodiment of their philosophy, but even Madison recognized the need for limitations on individuals by the Federal Government. In article 1 section 8 of the Constitution, Madison expressly indicates that the Militia, far from being the check on the Federal Government that libertarians see it as, was put under the charge of Congress to call "forth...to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrection and repel Invasions." He wanted the militia to be the Federal Governmen't strength so that it would not need the standing army that Hamilton favored. Far from the militia being a check on the Federal Government, it was Congress was given the responsibility of "organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia." Even when discussing the second amendment which people today use to argue for unlimited gun rights, Madison asked, "For whose benefit is the militia organized, armed and disciplined? for the benefit of the United States." In discussing the second amendment in the House of Representatives, Madison said, "I confess that I do conceive, that in a government modified like this of the United States, the great danger lies rather in the abuse of the community than in the legislative body. The prescriptions in favor of liberty, ought to be leveled against that quarter where the greatest danger lies, namely...in the body of the people, operating by the majority against the minority." Madison thus seems to have envisiosned the Federal Government as having as one of its kobs the protection of the minority view against the majority rule. During the Washington administration, Adams opposed the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton and so found himself opposing the Federalist party he previously sided with. He joined with Thomas Jefferson in forming the Republican party as an opposition to the Hamiltonian form of Federalism (this Republican party is ancestral to both the Democratic and the Republican parties of today).
During the Adams administration, Madison and Jefferson further opposed Hamiltonian Federalism by arguing against the Alien and Sedition acts. In doing to they advocated the right of the states to overrule the laws of the Federal government. This is hard to reconcile with his earlier advocacy of the Federal government’s power to overrule state laws.
During the Jefferson administration, Madison tried unsuccessfully to avoid entanglement in European affairs. The Jefferson-Madison policies created tensions with Britain that would come back to haunt Madison.
As America’s fourth President, Madison was unable to prevent war with Britain. The War of 1812, proximally caused by American opposition to British impressment of American sailors into the British navy, really was due to lingering anti-British sentiments among Americans that Jefferson had encouraged during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Although ultimately the British and Americans signed a peace treaty, no issues were really resolved by this war.
As a Republican president, Madison, oddly enough, supported strongly Federalist policies such as the establishment of a National Bank as well as protectionist tariffs (both of which were originally conceived by Hamilton and opposed by Jefferson).
Just as John Adams represents a moderate Federalist, Madison represents a moderate Republican. As such both helped to establish the generally Centrist political climate that Washington perhaps initiated and which still exists today. In practice, both parties today support broadly the same things with neither one being in favor of too much or too little government. Similarly, both Adams and Madison tried to balance the Federalist and states’ rights proponents of their day. Neither, however, were all that successful as President.
Click Here to Read More About James Madison
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