Chapter Summary Of Founding Brothers By Joseph Ellis

Founding Brothers is a book by Joseph Ellis that covers six events that occurred after the 1787 Constitutional Convention. This book won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for History and centers around the most prominent members of the Constitutional Era. Chapter one, entitled The Duel, focuses on the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The author states the… simpler version of the dual, which is that Hamilton and Burr shot at each other form ten paces away. Hamilton was shot and wounded, and died the next day. Burr was not hurt but never recovered politically. Ellis says that while this version of the story is accurate it is too brief and undetailed. He says that to understand the significance of the duel we must consider the personalities

By relinquishing his position, he gave way to the two-term tradition, because at the time there were no laws that restricted how long someone could hold office as the President. In his letter, he explains that the country should have a strong centralized government, we should avoid political parties, and we should mind our own business and stay out of foreign affairs. He also suggested to Congress that they give the judicial and legislative branches more power because with this new system of government they didn’t have a strong executive branch like they did in Britain. Ellis also explains in this chapter that Washington wasn’t the legendary man that we all assume him to be, he was just a regular man that happened to be the first president who knew what he was doing. Washington, was a large and large man, but his age was catching up to him. Washington was in his 60’s when he was elected President and his age showed as his time in office progressed. In 1790 he caught a nasty case of the flu that nearly killed him and his mental health slowly began to decline following it. He then got into a riding accident in 1794 and his physical appearance began to worsen. John Adams said that Washington “seemed dazed and wholly scripted at certain public ceremonies, like an actor reading his lines or an aging athlete going through the motions”

Since the Revolution Jefferson and Adams parted ways and became enemies. When Jefferson was President he sent a letter to Abigail Adams in which he forgave Adams for what he had done. Abigail was angered by this and the two sent each other letters back about why the other was wrong. Adams had his own thing going on during this time. He was angry that everyone else was getting more credit than they deserved. He said that if it wasn’t for him Jefferson wouldn’t be as powerful as he was. He said that Jefferson had only written the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and it was Adams idea to have him write it in the first place. Benjamin Rush, who was a mutual friend of Adams and Jefferson, tried to help reconcile the two and was unsuccessful. In 1813 Adams and Jefferson forgave each other and became friends again. In fact, both Jefferson and Adams died on the same day, July 4th,