Founding Brothers-Chapter 2 and 3
Fully discuss the following in your groups:
Chapter 2:
1. Why was Hamilton convinced that if his financial plan was not approved in its entirety, the “government and inevitably the national union itself would collapse.” (48)
2. What part of his plan was being blocked? By whom? Why? (48 and 56)
3. Why is the location of the capital so important to these Founding Brothers? What does/will it represent about the nation and governance?
4. What was the result of the dinner Jefferson hosted? …and why does Ellis state it was the “most meaningful dinner party of American history?”
5. Ellis keeps referring to “assumption” –what is he referencing? Why was Madison so against this idea from Hamilton? (57)
6. Describe James Madison according to Ellis. Consider why he was given the title, “Father of the Constitution and other accomplishments (52-53).
7. According to Ellis, “Madison possessed the subtlest and most intellectually sophisticated understanding of the choices facing the new American republic of any member of the revolutionary generation.” Why? Do you agree?
8. Describe the public debt in 1790.
9. According to Ellis, assumption was really about power. Explain his argument. He continues on to argue that assumption revived the fears that the central government would “swallow up” the states and their powers and rights. Why was this fear so dominant? Do you agree with Ellis on this statement—why/why not?
10. How does Ellis describe Hamilton-look especially at how he is different from Madison (60-61).
11. Which of the two, Hamilton or Madison, do you respect more? Why?
12. What did Hamilton think he was doing with his Report on Public Affairs? (61)
13. Ellis argues that Hamilton said “assumption was not a plot to destroy the political integrity of the states; it was a plan to consolidate debts and be economically beneficial for all.” Do you agree with Ellis that was Hamilton’s reasoning (consider his personality and position of power). Is he correct that assuming state debt would set the US on a course of financial security?
14. The 13 original colonies were different from each other in many ways; the states were (mostly) united in their battle against English oppression, but when the war was done, what would hold them together? How does Ellis answer this?
15. What 3 reasons does Ellis give that Hamilton’s report was a projection of his own personality?
16. Describe Jefferson according to Ellis.
17. What were the leading places for the capital? (70)
18. In what ways does Jefferson’s dinner table conversation report distort the truth?
19. Why was Virginia’s resolution seen as having an implicit secessionist threat? (77)
20. Why is this entire chapter devoted to the Compromise of 1790?
Chapter 3:
1. What happened in Congress on February 11, 1790?
2. In congressional debates in 1790 about the possible abolition of slavery, Georgia representative James Jackson attacked the abolitionist Quakers as “outright lunatics” (97) and went on to say, “If it were a crime, as some assert but which I deny, the British nation is answerable for it, and not the present in habitants, who now hold that species of property in question” (98). Does Jackson’s refusal to name “that species of property” point to his own moral discomfort with owning enslaved human beings? To what degree were the founders complicit in this deliberate refusal to name and acknowledge the moral problem of slavery?
3. According to article 1, section 9, paragraph 1, when could the Congress deal with the issue of slavery?
4. Why did Madsion tell Jackson to calm down about what the Quakers were asking? What do you think about Madison when he said, “such things are not contemplated by any gentlemen in the congress?” (83)
5. Why was the second petition to Congress about ending slavery so much more important than the 1st?
6. Consider the fact that the word slavery is never mentioned in the Constitution—what does this mean about this issue?
7. What important text did southern representatives use to support slavery?
8. Elbridge Gerry figured it would cost $10 million to compensate southern slave owners for their slaves. The point was to demonstrate that voters would not accept a tax to cover these costs. So then what happened? What was the real threat concerning the issue of slavery?
9. “the inability to take decisive action against slavery…permitted the size of the enslaved population to grow exponentially…over 600,000 Americans would die in the nation’s bloodiest war…” This quote from Ellis is very important and correct. Why didn’t the” Founding Brothers” address the issue of slavery head on from the beginning? Why did they address this issue with silence?
10. Do you agree with Ellis’ statement that the Declaration of Independence was “an unambiguous tract for abolition.” If so, why or why not? Also, if it truly was as Ellis argues, why again wasn’t this issue addressed, made illegal, long before the writing of the Constitution even?
11. By 1784, what states had made slavery illegal? (90)
12. What proof does Ellis give that slavery “was the central cause of the most elemental division in the Constitutional Convention?” (91)
13. According to Ellis, “any clear resolution of the slavery question one way or the other rendered ratification of the Constitution virtually impossible.” In other words, what was most important to the founders? What was their motivation to not even use the word in the Constitution? (93)
14. Discuss the quote, “no responsible statesman in the revolutionary era had ever contemplated, much less endorsed, a biracial American society.” (101)
15. What are some conclusions one can make about the 1790 census report? (102)
16. Discuss “what had begun as an initiative to put slavery on the road to extinction (the Quaker petitions the chapter started with) had been transformed into a decision to extinguish all federal plans for emancipation.” How did this happen and why? What was Washington’s response to this? (118)
17. “…the badge of mourning the members of the House agreed to wear also bore testimony to the tragic and perhaps intractable problem that even the revolutionary generation with all its extraordinary talent, could neither solve nor face.” Discuss this quote. (119)