Founding Brothers : The Revolutionary Generation

The founding fathers, or as the book calls them the founding brothers, are an assorted group of men from wildly different backgrounds. In political terms, they were divided. Yet, they came to together to help shape this country into the place it is today. Now on their journey towards the making of this country they did encounter some trouble. They encountered heated debates among themselves though for getting through these debates they show just why they deserve to be called, founding brothers.

In the books The Quartet and Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Ellis and Joyce Appleby discuss their thoughts on two important moments in American history and how they believe them to be revolutionary. The Quartet describes the political situation of the United States immediately following the American Revolution and how it made the transformation from a confederation into a republic. To do this, it follows the actions of four prominent men – George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison – as they work toward their goal of bringing about a new national government and discusses nationalism, issues such as economics and expansion, and arguments about personal, state, and federal powers. He argues that the debate over the Constitution was between “nationalists” and “confederationists”, that the second Revolution was a by-product of the first in that it took the systems of the newly-independent states and reworked them into a coherent national collective, and that without this change, the United States couldn’t have become a modern model of government.

The chapters are titled "The Generation", "The Duel", "The Dinner", "The Silence", "The Farewell", "The Collaborators" and "The Friendship". In "The Duel", the story of the legendary duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is related in its entirety. It was by far the most prominent deadly standoff between two men in history. Ellis relates the background and brief biographies of the two men involved in the duel. He also reveals the context for the duel, a culmination of political and personal jabs at Burrs character by Hamilton. In fact these jabs held a good deal of truth, and finally resulted in Burr challenging Hamilton. Both Hamilton and Burr went to the plains in Weehawken to conduct the duel in defense of their honor and characters. Historically, Hamilton is seen as a martyr in the duel and Burr seen as a treacherous murderer. This Hamiltonian viewpoint is dominant among historians because it is widely believed that Hamilton went into the duel not intending to fire a shot and that Burr fired the first shot. Ellis believes this version of the story to be wrong. He believes that Hamilton honored his bargain of not firing on Burr, wasting his first shot by firing it into the trees. Burr, thinking that Hamilton fired at him, shot and killed Hamilton with his shot.

The Quartet by Joseph Ellis was a novel to provide detail of the years following the American Revolution, and how the Quartet of George Washington, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton each provided a quality in guiding America toward the right direction. Ellis creates a theme almost as if the reader is on a tour guide, because he explains the perspective on how America was being created between the “Second Revolution” of the years 1783-1789. But, the main goal Ellis wanted to make clear was this time period was the process of how America became a Nation. After finishing the book, Ellis was effective in making the case that the Quartet of Washington, Jay, Hamilton, Madison, as well as other major influences, greatly affected the “transition from confederation to nation.” Each Quartet presented a value in help transitioning America into a Nation, and Ellis provides excellent examples to solidify that claim.

During the times after the creation the United States Constitution the Founding Fathers, or Founding Brothers as this book calls them, explored many different challenges. “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation” talks about this challenges and events in different sections that focus on seven historical figures at the time: George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and Adam Burr. Joseph J. Ellis talked about six events, in six chapters, from the time in American history that shaped the ideas that created the United States government that is known today. The chapters are called as followed The Duel, The Dinner, The Silence, The Farewell, The Collaborators, and The Friendship. After a brief introductory chapter called The Generation , in which the reader is introduced to the setting and characters, the story begins.

In Joseph Ellis’ Founding Brothers, the novel surrounds the major political leaders during the 1790s. The acts and intentions of these few leaders were responsible for the shaping of this national institution. Ellis explores this revolutionary generation full of honorable men who argued just as much as any other generation, but acted for posterity and themselves. Throughout the book, the theme of truth is expressed in the accounts of the political leaders and Ellis’ writing. The theme can be found through the accounts of Hamilton and Burr, Washington, and Adams and Jefferson.

Ellis describes a heated House debate in 1790 where slavery was reluctantly addressed. Benjamin Franklin and James Madison’s reactions are discussed. Ellis recognizes that in this moment, compromise was absent and the divisions within the country were becoming increasingly conspicuous. Ellis emphasize that making slavery a non-issue eventually led to the Civil War. The next event described by Ellis was the publishing of George Washington’s Farewell Address. Ellis addresses Washington’s legacy and regard for future generations of America. In his next story, Ellis examines how the relationships of 1776 turned into more sensible collaborations that would mold American history. Ellis focuses mainly on the relationship between Jefferson and Adams as well as Adams’ collaboration with his wife, Abigail. In his final piece of evidence, Ellis tells the story of the extensive communication between Adams and Jefferson during the last fourteen years of their lives, restoring their lost friendship after a political betrayal.

The Sons of Liberty was the name given to a group of patriots who worked underground to defend the rights of the colonists against the British government in the years before the American Revolution. They represented the ideals of liberty and justice, approving all the grievances and complaints of the colonists. Although the name was first used during the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1765, it continued to be stated to whenever colonists came together to fight new British laws, and especially taxes. The Sons of Liberty became an organization capable of getting people together to protest British impositions in a very effective manner. The slogan “No taxation without representation” was their official motto and the “tar and feathering” was

I found this particular story very captivating because these two men had so much in common you would think that they would have become friends instead of mortal enemies, they were both born at the end of the 17th century and although Aaron burr was born to royalty and Hamilton was born illegitimately and out of wedlock they still both went on to pursue very similar lives and careers.

Following the American Revolution the newly independent nation faced the colossal task of setting up a new form of government. During this time Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton became two of the most influential men in politics. Coming from immensely different backgrounds, Jefferson and Hamilton had very different viewpoints and skills to offer the new nation. Both men served their country during the Revolution and afterwards both men were eager to play a hand in the molding of this new nation. Bringing their conflicting ideals and beliefs to the table, Jefferson and Hamilton often butted heads.

Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis is one of the most intriguing and inspiring books to read. This book helps inform others of American politics, while also giving readers a new perspective on the unforeseeable forces that shaped history. In this book joseph Ellis uses six brief descriptions of events to show readers the contemplation and acts of our revolutionary leaders.

One of the most detrimental events in Aaron Burr’s career was “The Duel” with Alexander Hamilton. Not only was dueling illegal in 1804 in New Jersey, which is where the duel occurred, but Aaron Burr was the current Vice President of the United States of America taking part in an event that led to the death of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton himself was one of the most powerful figures in the Federalist Party and was so well known within the party that his advocates believed that he emulated the political energy of George Washington, so the death of Hamilton was a shock to the party and to the nation. Now before this duel occurred, Hamilton and Burr both had their reasons why they detested each other. Hamilton, over a period of about fifteen years, completely disparaged Burr as a person and as a politician which frustrated Burr. Hamilton believed that Burr was doing what was politically expedient which Hamilton thought indicated that Burr had no principles. Moreover, Hamilton 's constant political attacks on Burr eventually led to the proclamation of a duel and the fulfillment of the duel which resulted in the death of Alexander Hamilton and the end of Burr’s political career. In regard to the duel, the conclusion of the duel signified how much they detested each other and how their hatefulness for each other changed history even before the duel occurred. For example, in the presidential election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr had the

After finishing this chapter, I thought it was quite odd that he didn’t explain what happened before the duel first. Instead Ellis could have gave more info of maybe something that could backup our knowledge of the American Revolution. But, it also could have just been a way to make someone more interested because we first learn that Hamilton gets shot and after knowing that we want to know WHY Burr shot Hamilton. But Ellis hints that the Founding Fathers had harsh expectations for each other and they all had lots of honor to defend such as Hamilton; he did not plan to oppose Burr, but Hamilton still went to meet Burr. Then as it said in the start of the chapter. The consequences given to Burr were worse than the ones given to Hamilton -which was death-. This was a private matter between two Founding Fathers, and they tried their best to keep it private by doing things such as being in a private place or making all people nearby turn away so they could not be witnesses. But it was probably quite hard for them to keep this “private” matter away from the public, even with all of these precautions. Later in the chapter we learned that the Founding Fathers were afraid of breakdown of the federal government and The Duel was a display of the fear of the breakdown.

The duel was set for today. Time is running out. In the distance, a clock was ticking til’ time was up for first shots. Then, you could see a tall slender man with dark brown eyes coming your way. He was wearing a black shirt, a blue coat, and a hat. There he was, Aaron Burr was sitting in a boat, rowing over the Hudson at dawn in Weehawken, New Jersey. In the distance, you could see a taller man with bright blue eyes with a white shirt and a red coat on coming your way. His name was Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton pursued a job as a leading Federalist of America's Political Company. He was with Nathaniel Pendleton and a doctor by the name of Dr. David Hosack. At that instant, Burr got out of the boat and walked onto the terrain. Burr examined the province and got into position. This land looks like the Garden of Eden. Burr realized. Soon after, Burr and Hamilton stood back to back and took exactly ten paces each from each other. Although, neither one of them wanted to duel.