Founding Brothers
Introduction
When I first heard the name of Ellis’ Book “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation”, I could not understand why the author called the revolutionary generation “brothers”, but not “fathers” as usual. Now, after I have read the book, I understand why. Ellis did not write the history of the United States, he wrote the story of a group of men, whose remarkable personal qualities made possible the emergence of a new independent country. Although, the members of the group were different in their personalities, backgrounds and experiences, it seems like all of them shared a superhuman gene of the ability to change the history. Since Founding Father’s agendas on the political course of the U.S. had differed drastically, they were not friends and, often, even allies. However, the devotion to the U.S. independency was literary in their blood, so it made them …show more content…
division on slavery issue was becoming more apparent. Confrontations grew and some states such as Georgia and South Carolina started to threaten by their secession. Thus, Madison applied all his political eloquence to prevent making any final decision on the question, so the secession was avoided. He prevented any possibility of Constitutional abolition of the slavery, and then secured the committee’s decision about keeping the slavery issue out federal jurisdiction. After it was recognized that Congress could not sanction the abolishment of the slavery, this question was withdrawn from the Congressional agenda for 20 years. Madison considered the slavery immoral, but he was practical and feared the consequences of the slavery abolishment on the federal level. Thus, by excluding the question of slavery from federal concerns, Madison secured both states’ rights and “silence”. Taking into account that Lincoln’s Emancipation of the slaves resulted in the Civil war; Madison very likely at that moment not only secured the “silence”, but prevented the beginning of the Civil