Friendship and Conflict: The Relationship of the U.S. "Founding Fathers"

It is common for Americans to imagine the early leaders of the American Revolution as a group of agreeable, flawless men. However, this sentimental portrait fails to recognize the vast differences that existed between the founders, and the effect that these differences had on the early United States. The conflicts between the founders gave rise to a fundamentally different American nation than that which they originally intended to establish.  

As the American Revolution broke out, the colonists’ repertoire of antiquity permeated their conversation and writing. “Knowledge of classical authors was universal among colonists with any degree of education, and references to their works abound in the (colonial) literature.”1 In particular, the early pamphleteers and spokesmen of rebellious sentiment emphasized this classical repertoire.

“Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Euripedes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon…among the Greeks; and Cicero, Horace, Vergil, Tacitus…among the Romans-are all cited in the Revolutionary literature; many are directly quoted. It was an obscure pamphleteer indeed who could not muster at least one classical analogy or one ancient precept.”2

The colonists’ understanding of classical writing was superficial.3 Nonetheless, their admiration and evocation of classical virtue and republican ideals proved to be more than mere window dressing for incendiary pamphlets. The colonists aspired to put the principles of ancient times into practice.

The founding fathers’ admiration of antiquity dramatically impacted their civic worldview, and in turn, their leadership. They went to great lengths to live out classical virtues and to imitate classical figures of the past. Samuel Adams, an educated gentleman, obsessively tried to embody republican values by forsaking personal wealth and fame. George Washington, like the Roman hero Cincinatus before him, wished only to return to his farm at Mt. Vernon after his victories in war.4 John Adams’ adherence to stern republican values led him to reflect skeptically upon the licentious, vivacious ways of the French, despite his admiration for some aspects of their culture.5 The founders belief that adherence to classical republican ways would bring not just fair government, but virtue of character, compelled them as they founded a new nation.6

Today, the terms “republican” and “democrat” are superficially interchangeable. In the eighteenth century they carried different connotations.7 “Democracy was not to emerge as a fully legitimate cultural value in America…until the 1830s’, with the appearance of a national system of mass political parties”8. Republicanism differed greatly from democracy, in the minds of the founders. The “world in which they all functioned was hardly a ‘democratic’ world…but an elite one…A key theme was public service by men (of) special merits…The people’s virtue was still primarily their capacity less to act than to choose wisely.”9 The founders saw themselves as the virtuous elite, capable of governing the less gifted common folk. 

Despite the founders’ passion for republican ideology, their dream would not come to fruition. The republican revolution aimed to reconstitute American society by breaking the mold of monarchial norms in favor of virtue, disinterested public leadership, and unity. Yet the ink on the Declaration of Independence was scarcely dry before many of the founders’ began harboring doubts about whether their vision could be realized. The virtue and unity of the republican revolution could not be sustained amongst intense political and personal disagreement.10

Divisive exchange occurred as the young nation’s future took shape. The founders engaged in disputes on a variety of issues, and found their ranks fragmented into opposing parties. Points of contention included questions of states rights, socioeconomic structure, and American foreign policy.

The question of strong individual states as opposed to a strong federal government sat at the heart of the founders’ disagreements, and caused discord among them. Within the young country, the Federalists desired a strong national government, whereas the Republicans did not. Republicans feared that a federal government could become too powerful, particularly in its ability to levy taxes, to raise standing armies, and to incur a national debt to foreign nations.11

Economic differences between Federalists and Republicans were a primary source of conflict. The most drastic point of contention centered on Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s plan for a national economy, and the opposition he faced from the Republicans.  Hamilton’s grand design called for the assumption of state debts by the national government, the formation of a national bank, and the establishment of national credit.12 A true genius (and a favorite of President George Washington), Secretary Hamilton stood in position to permanently elevate the federal government’s power over that of the state governments.13