Founding Fathers

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

The Register-Mail asked local political history experts and politicians to name their favorite Founding Father and list that person's top three accomplishments.

JAMES MADISON

By Lane Sunderland

My favorite Founder is James Madison, best known as the Father of the Constitution. He was one of three authors of The Federalist, the profound essays that argued for adoption of the Constitution and that are still cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. Madison understood that the self-evident truths of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence - equality, liberty and consent of the governed - are the promise and the standard of all legitimate governments.

First, Madison proceeded from the premise that democracy was the form of government consistent with the character of the American people.

Second, he believed in the necessity for a strong national government. Because "men are not angels," a Constitution must first enable a strong government to control the governed.

Third, he insisted that the Constitution contain mechanisms such as separated powers that work to prevent precipitous majority action from undermining the rights of individuals or acting counter to the public good. To further protect the individual from oppressive majorities, he spearheaded the effort in the First Congress to propose the Bill of Rights. Madison was instrumental in the Constitution's fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence.

Lane Sunderland, author of numerous books and articles on the Constitution, is Chancie Ferris Booth Professor of Political Science at Knox College. He is a United States Supreme Court Fellow and was Director of Education for the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

By Don Moffitt

I have always found Benjamin Franklin to be one of the most interesting and colorful of the Founding Fathers. Even though he did not become president like several of the others, he made many contributions still important to us today.

His most important contribution is being a Founding Father. Franklin was the only Founding Father who signed all three of the major documents that led to our independence from Great Britain and formed our government - the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris and the U.S. Constitution. In September of 1787, the new constitution was completed but many delegates had doubts and concerns. Franklin wrote a very passionate and persuasive speech urging all delegates to sign the constitution, and a majority did just that.

A second contribution was Franklin's leadership in forming the Philadelphia Fire Department in 1736, the first volunteer firefighting organization in America. The original 25 members met monthly to learn about techniques and establish policies. To belong to the department, each member had to pay dues and provide at least two buckets for carrying water and several sacks for rescuing items from burning buildings.

A third contribution of Franklin's was his leadership in starting a subscription library for all of Philadelphia's citizens. Prior to Franklin's idea, there were only private libraries for the rich. The public library made books, newspapers and other information more accessible to all citizens. The idea was the forerunner of our modern library system.

First elected in 1992 to the Illinois House of Representatives, Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, is a Galesburg native and former local government official and public school teacher.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

By Thomas Best

Thomas Jefferson deserves a special place of recognition among our Founding Fathers.

With the Declaration of Independence, he is the author of American democracy and civil rights. His 18th century language regarding human equality transcended his own time to inspire 19th century abolitionists to end slavery and 20th century women to gain the right to vote. Indeed, if you examine the statements of our greatest idealists and reformers, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Jr., you will see the shadow of Jefferson's pen guiding their hand and thoughts.

Jefferson also was the visionary for an America whose influence would one day extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Although a strict constructionist regarding federal powers, he put aside his own political preferences to purchase the Louisiana Territory thus initiating the future of expansion of our nation.

In conjunction with this purchase, it was the sage of Monticello who envisioned and framed the geographic and scientific goals of the first U.S. explorations across this most lucrative real estate deal - the famous expeditions of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike. Therefore, it is only with the monumental dreams of Jefferson that our nation was born and grew into what it has become today.

Thomas Best teaches in the departments of history and education at Monmouth College and is a social studies teacher at Monmouth-Roseville Junior High. Best has served on a number of committees for the Illinois State Board of Education in curriculum development and standards. He is also a board member for the Illinois Council for the Social Studies and has written articles for various local and statewide publications.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

By Fred Visel

My favorite Founding Father is George Washington.

Among what I believe to be his three greatest accomplishments are first and foremost his successful tenure as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Without that success America would have died in infancy.

Washington learned how to be a commander through a process of on-the-job training. As a result he lost more battles than he won. Many times his British opponents, despite his French and Indian War experience, made him look like the amateur he was, especially in the battles of Long Island and White Plains when General William Howe drove the Continentals out of New York City.

There were more defeats to follow. Lesser men would have given up the struggle. However, Washington realized that he did not have to win the war. He just had to be sure that he did not lose so catastrophically that his army ceased to exist. As long as he kept his army in the field the British government and people would eventually tire of the war. That is exactly what happened. Even after Yorktown the British had the capacity to continue the war, but they had lost the will.

Washington's second great achievement occurred when the war was over and the Continental Army was encamped at Newburgh, N.Y., waiting in vain to be paid off. There was talk among the officers about marching down the Hudson River to New York City and compelling Congress to pay up at the point of a bayonet. Washington got wind of this "Newburgh Conspiracy" and nipped it in the bud, thus affirming military subordination to the civilian government.

Washington's third great achievement was the way he conducted affairs of state as the first president of the United States. Being the first president meant that everything Washington did set a precedent his successors would follow. Washington was careful not to infringe on the prerogatives of Congress, but at the same time he exercised control over foreign affairs and kept us out of the wars spawned by the French Revolution.

Fred Visel is a retired faculty member, part-time instructor and college historian at Carl Sandburg College. He is also active in the American Historical Association and in the Galesburg Historical Society.