The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers Notes

Myths of the Founding Fathers:

• The Founding generation created a democracy.
• The Founding Fathers really believed everyone was equal.
• Slavery was a sin of the Southern founders. Slavery was not a purely regional sin, largely because it was northern ships that conducted the slave trade.
• Paul Revere single-handedly warned the Boston countryside of the impending British invasion. Revere arrived in Lexington first and met with Hancock and Adams. [William] Dawes arrived thirty minutes later, joined by Samuel Prescott, they rode on to warn the people of Concord of the impending attack. But before they reached the town, British sentries stopped them at a roadblock. Revere was arrested, but Dawes and Prescott escaped. Dawes, however, fell off his horse and was injured, leaving Prescott to alert the Minutemen of Concord on his own.
• Benjamin Franklin had thirteen to eighty illegitmate children!
• Thomas Jefferson kept a concubine slave and fathered children with her! In 2001, the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society…released a report that directly contradicted [this myth]. In the summary of their findings, the scholars stated,”With the exception of one member…our individual conclusions range from serious skepticism about the charge to a conviction that is almost certainly false.” The scholars pointed to Jefferson’s brother, often called “Uncle Randolph,” as the probable father of Heming’s children. Randolph Jefferson was reported to have a social relationship with the Monticello slaves and had possibly fathered other children through his own servants.
• Washington had an affair with his neighbor’s wife! This myth has been a rumor since the publication of a suspect letter in the New York Harold in 1877. The contents of the letter seemed to indicate that Washington and Sally Fairfax…had a passionate, romantic interest in one another. No evidence of an affair exists. Washington’s primary biographer, Douglass Southall Freeman, wrote that such an affair would surely been the subject of considerable gossip in Virginia’s elite circles. Freeman believed Washington loved Sally Fairfax, but she did not return the admiration. While those letters have been cited on numerous occasions since John C. Fitzpatrick, who worked at the Library of Congress and had an enormous interest in Washington, included the letters in his thirty-seven volume series of Washington’s writings and correspondance (published between 1931 and 1944), their authenticity has always been in question.
• Alexander Hamilton had a gay lover! The myth of Hamilton’s homosexual past centers on his relationship with John Laurens of South Carolina. Both men served under George Washington during the American Revolution. Laurens and Hamilton developed a close relationship. Hamilton told Laurens that he loved him, and Laurens referred to Hamilton as “My Dear.” They were both young, involved in a dire situation, and had idealistic notions about life and society. They were kindred spirits, but no hint of a sexual relationship exists.
• John Hancock signed the Declaration of Indepedence in a big, bold hand so the king could read it without his glasses. Hancock signed it first and largest because he was the president of the Congress.

What the Founding Fathers would do*:

1. Follow the Constitution.
2. Cut federal spending and reduce the public debt.
3. Eliminate taxes and rein-in or abolish the Federal Reserve system.
4. Reduce the size of the military, and end foreign alliances and foreign wars.
5. Limit immigration.
6. Reassert state control over state issues.
7. Preserve the Bill of Rights.

Thomas Jefferson quotes:

A democracy [is] the only pure republic, but impracticable beyond the limits of a town.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that…it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

The President is bound to stop at the limits prescribed by our Constitution and law to the authorities in his hands, [and this] would apply in an occasion of peace as well as war.

John Adams quotes:

I expressly say that Congress is not a representative body but a diplomatic body, a collection of ambassadors from the thirteen sovereign States…nor indeed, in any moment of my life, did I ever approve of a consolidated government, or would I have given my vote for it. A consolidated government under a monarchy, an aristocracy, or democracy, or a mixture of either, would have flown to pieces like a glass bubble under the first blow of a hammer on an anvil.

Take Care that they [children] don’t go astray. Cultivate their Minds, inspire their little Hearts, raise their Wishes. Fix their Attention upon great and glorious Objects, root out every little Thing, weed out every Meanness, make them great and manly. Teach them to scorn Injustice, Ingratitude, Cowardice, and Falsehood. Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and Liberty.

Facts are stubborn things: and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. – at the Boston Massacre Trial, 1770.

All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another. – Samuel Adams, 1772.

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many. Both, therefore, ought to have power, that they each may defend itself against one another.  - Alexander Hamilton, 1787.

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency: but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. – Benjamin Franklin, 1789.

A nation oppresed by taxes, can never be generous, benevolent or enlightened. – John Taylor of Caroline, 1814.

A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves, and render troops in a great measure unnecessary. – Richard Henry Lee, 1788.

Source: The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers (2009) by Brion McClanahan, Ph. D.

 

*This is why the Left loathes the Founders.