NYT book review: What the Founding Fathers Had That We Haven't

Books of The Times | 'Revolutionary Characters,' by Gordon S. Wood
What the Founding Fathers Had That We Haven't
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: June 27, 2006

....In addition, Mr. Wood underscores the degree to which personality and personal philosophies informed these leaders' politics: how the realism (some might say pessimism) about human nature shared by Adams and Hamilton shaped their belief in the need for a strong government; how the optimism (some might say naïveté) about human nature held by Jefferson and Paine led them to see government as a threat to human liberty and happiness.

What most members of the founding generation shared, Mr. Wood argues, was a "devotion to the public good," a gentlemanly belief in the importance of disinterested public service, and a self-conscious seriousness about their duty to promote the common welfare.

Among the founding fathers' circle, one who did not share this outlook was Burr. As a senator from New York, Burr used "his public office in every way he could to make money," Mr. Wood says, and his "self-interested shenanigans" alarmed colleagues on both ends of the political spectrum. When the presidential election of 1800 was thrown into the House of Representatives, Hamilton — who would later be killed in a famous duel with Burr — "spared no energy" in persuading his fellow Federalists to support his longtime rival Jefferson over Burr; after more than 30 ballots in the House, Jefferson finally became president.

That bitter enemies like Hamilton and Jefferson joined forces against Burr, Mr. Wood writes, was an indication that they believed he "posed far more of a threat to the American Revolution than either of them ever thought the other did."

As Mr. Wood sees it, however, Jefferson and Hamilton, like the other founders, belonged to the past: in a "democratic world of progress, Providence and innumerable isolated but equal individuals, there could be little place for the kind of extraordinary political and intellectual leadership the revolutionary generation had demonstrated." It was Burr, he adds, who embodied "what most American politicians would eventually become — pragmatic, get-along men."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/books/27kaku.html

as water back then could be dangerous. and no fucking teevee knews that has the attention span of a gnat and about as deep. no teevee or internets. knowledge was something admired. (unless from a woman or black). of course affairs were easier. but then the fevers made it less than heaven. and then there's the smell i am sure was hard to escape in towns.

boy, Paine and Jefferson had that right.