Fears of a setting sun: the disillusionment of America's Founders

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Princeton University Press
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Language:
English

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Whatever sense of hope the Founder Fathers may have felt at the new government's birth, almost none of them carried that optimism to their graves. Franklin survived to see the Constitution in action for only a single year, but most of the founders who lived into the nineteenth century came to feel deep anxiety, disappointment, and even despair about the government and the nation that they had helped to create. Indeed, by the end of their lives many of the founders judged the Constitution that we now venerate to be an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation. This book tells the story of their disillusionment. The book focuses principally on four of the preeminent figures of the period (1787): George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. These four lost their faith in the American experiment at different times and for different reasons, and each has his own unique story. As Rasmussen shows in a series of three chapters on each figure, Washington became disillusioned above all because of the rise of parties and partisanship, Hamilton because he felt that the federal government was not sufficiently vigorous or energetic, Adams because he believed that the American people lacked the requisite civic virtue for republican government, and Jefferson because of sectional divisions brought on (as he saw it) by Northern attempts to restrict slavery and consolidate power in the federal government. Washington, Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson were the most prominent of the founders who grew disappointed in what America became, but they were certainly not the only ones. In a final chapter Rasmussen shows that most of the other leading founders-including figures such as Samuel Adams, John Jay, James Monroe, and Thomas Paine-fell in the same camp. The most notable founder who did not come to despair for his country was the one who outlived them all, James Madison. Madison did harbor some real worries but a final chapter also explores why Madison largely kept the republican faith when so many of his compatriots did not.

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ISBN:
9780691210230
9780691211060

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Grouped Work ID8ea58f05-bcc2-50bc-1d0d-09538a8e8eb9
Grouping Titlefears of a setting sun the disillusionment of americas founders
Grouping Authordennis c rasmussen
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-06-16 01:46:09AM
Last Indexed2024-06-16 02:10:53AM

Solr Fields

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Washington, George, 1732-1799
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Rasmussen, Dennis C. (Dennis Carl), 1978-
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Washington, George,1732-1799
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display_description
Whatever sense of hope the Founder Fathers may have felt at the new government's birth, almost none of them carried that optimism to their graves. Franklin survived to see the Constitution in action for only a single year, but most of the founders who lived into the nineteenth century came to feel deep anxiety, disappointment, and even despair about the government and the nation that they had helped to create. Indeed, by the end of their lives many of the founders judged the Constitution that we now venerate to be an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation. This book tells the story of their disillusionment. The book focuses principally on four of the preeminent figures of the period (1787): George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. These four lost their faith in the American experiment at different times and for different reasons, and each has his own unique story. As Rasmussen shows in a series of three chapters on each figure, Washington became disillusioned above all because of the rise of parties and partisanship, Hamilton because he felt that the federal government was not sufficiently vigorous or energetic, Adams because he believed that the American people lacked the requisite civic virtue for republican government, and Jefferson because of sectional divisions brought on (as he saw it) by Northern attempts to restrict slavery and consolidate power in the federal government. Washington, Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson were the most prominent of the founders who grew disappointed in what America became, but they were certainly not the only ones. In a final chapter Rasmussen shows that most of the other leading founders-including figures such as Samuel Adams, John Jay, James Monroe, and Thomas Paine-fell in the same camp. The most notable founder who did not come to despair for his country was the one who outlived them all, James Madison. Madison did harbor some real worries but a final chapter also explores why Madison largely kept the republican faith when so many of his compatriots did not.
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Books
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format_longmont
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id
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Longmont Public Library Online
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Online OverDrive Collection
primary_isbn
9780691210230
publishDate
2021
publisher
Princeton University Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Adams, John, -- 1735-1826
Biographies
Constitutions
Electronic books
Founding Fathers of the United States
Hamilton, Alexander, -- 1757-1804
History
Jefferson, Thomas, -- 1743-1826
United States -- History
United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809
United States -- Politics and government -- 1809-1817
United States -- Politics and government -- 1817-1825
title_display
Fears of a setting sun : the disillusionment of America's Founders
title_full
Fears of a Setting Sun : The Disillusionment of America's Founders [electronic resource] / Dennis C. Rasmussen
Fears of a Setting Sun The Disillusionment of America's Founders
Fears of a setting sun : the disillusionment of America's Founders / Dennis C. Rasmussen
title_short
Fears of a setting sun
title_sub
the disillusionment of America's Founders
topic_facet
Adams, John
Constitutions
Electronic books
Founding Fathers of the United States
Hamilton, Alexander
History
Jefferson, Thomas
Nonfiction
Politics
Politics and government

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