The Founding Fathers
February 20th 2012 22:53
Were the Founding Fathers secular saints that descended from heaven to create a liberty-loving country unmatched in world history or were they a group of greedy, racist white men intent on obtaining power through the oppression of other races and propertyless whites?
Despite the partisan rhetoric on both sides of the political spectrum, the answer is neither. While Founders were some of the most forward-looking men of their time, they were also creatures of their time.
By modern standards, the country these men created was extremely undemocratic. The defenders of the Founder's mythological image tend to rationalize or ignore this while a certain group of critics seem downright giddy to point out the moral failings of early America.
A non-partisan look at the Founders requires us to acknowledge their faults while not judging them by modern standards. While we shouldn't fall prey to the perils of presentism, we also shouldn't obscure the less than altruistic parts of the Founder's legacy. To portray those who want to ignore this history as patriots does a disservice to patriotism. Revisionist history is not patriotic and reality-based history is not another manifestation of political correctness.
While many of the Founders opposed slavery as so many "patriots" never tire of pointing out -- even some (Thomas Jefferson, George Washington) who were slaveholders themselves opposed slavery -- we should not shy away from the fact that the Founders left the slavery problem for future generations to solve. And the slavery problem was not the only area where the Founders fell short of their own inspiring rhetoric.
That the most eloquent defenders of liberty helped craft a government that denied liberty to the majority of it's citizens -- African Americans, Native Americans, woman and propertyless whites -- is a strange paradox. We shouldn't forget that many people fought and died to rid the country of the injustices that the Founding Fathers left us.
In conclusion, we should revere the Founding Fathers for their courage, while criticizing them for their failures.
Despite the partisan rhetoric on both sides of the political spectrum, the answer is neither. While Founders were some of the most forward-looking men of their time, they were also creatures of their time.
By modern standards, the country these men created was extremely undemocratic. The defenders of the Founder's mythological image tend to rationalize or ignore this while a certain group of critics seem downright giddy to point out the moral failings of early America.
A non-partisan look at the Founders requires us to acknowledge their faults while not judging them by modern standards. While we shouldn't fall prey to the perils of presentism, we also shouldn't obscure the less than altruistic parts of the Founder's legacy. To portray those who want to ignore this history as patriots does a disservice to patriotism. Revisionist history is not patriotic and reality-based history is not another manifestation of political correctness.
While many of the Founders opposed slavery as so many "patriots" never tire of pointing out -- even some (Thomas Jefferson, George Washington) who were slaveholders themselves opposed slavery -- we should not shy away from the fact that the Founders left the slavery problem for future generations to solve. And the slavery problem was not the only area where the Founders fell short of their own inspiring rhetoric.
That the most eloquent defenders of liberty helped craft a government that denied liberty to the majority of it's citizens -- African Americans, Native Americans, woman and propertyless whites -- is a strange paradox. We shouldn't forget that many people fought and died to rid the country of the injustices that the Founding Fathers left us.
In conclusion, we should revere the Founding Fathers for their courage, while criticizing them for their failures.
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