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Steven Kaplan

10/8/14
On the Founding Fathers
In America it can be argued that no other figures can invoke a more powerful and
visceral response from the common man that those of the founding fathers themselves.
These figures whose actions helped to forge the country into existence through their
blood, words, and sacrifice have continued to effect and influence this country even these
many hundreds of years after their deaths. Yet the effects their image is having on this
country may not in fact be in the manner or way in which they themselves had intended.
Once utilized to invoke the kind of valorous and independent nature that each and every
prospective American hoped to be like their image has in many cases been hijacked into
tools of xenophobia amongst other numerous abuses.
Arguably the most egregious of examples regarding the misuse of the founding
fathers are those utilized by the American right and the conservative movement as a
whole. To properly understand how this is done one must first come to an understanding
of American Conservatism as a whole. As the American Conservative Union states on
their official website the conservative movement can be defined as:
A belief that the Constitution of the United States is the best political charter yet created
by men for governing themselves, and that the Constitution was designed to guarantee the
free exercise of the inherent rights of the individual through strictly limiting the power of
government. A belief in the Declaration of Independence, and in particular the belief that
that an individuals inherent rights are endowed by a Creator and that said liberties can
remain secure only if government is so limited that it cannot infringe upon those rights.

There is also a belief that capitalism is the only economic system of compatible with
political liberty and that it has done so by not only brought a higher standard of living to a
greater number of people than any other economic system in the history of mankind but
that more importantly, it has been a decisive instrument in preserving freedom through
maintaining private control of economic power and thus limiting the power of
government. The belief that collectivism and capitalism are simply not compatible, and
that it is better for the government to work with capitalism rather than against it under the
belief that when not so the only possible end goal is the limitation of the natural
economic growth of society. The right and the responsibility of the individual citizen, to
join together with other individuals whenever their rights are threatened to protect said
rights no matter the source of these threats. (1).
Under such a set of beliefs it is only logical therefore to believe that the founding
fathers themselves would play a prominent role as they themselves were responsible for
the creation of the documents so widely held as sacrosanct by their followers.
Furthermore those on the extreme Christian right of the political spectrum take these
beliefs yet another step further through their beliefs that it is belief in the Judeo-Christian
God himself to whom America is truly built around. Ironically though in many cases
there is a great deal of evidence that the founding fathers opinion would differ heavily
from the views of modern conservatism.
Proof of these differences can be found within the writings of the founding fathers
themselves. For instance, one of the biggest flaws with the capitalist system of economy
is in the greatness of inequality between those with economic power and those without.
As misters Paul Solman, Richard B. Freeman, and Joseph R. Blasi pointed out in their

P.B.S article What the Founding Fathers Believed: Stock Ownership for All the truth
of the founding fathers belief on the nature of money was in fact far different from how
the conservatives in this country view the issue. On these issues it is written that:
James Madison warned that inequality in property ownership would subvert liberty, either
through opposition to wealth (a war of labor against capital) or by an oligarchy founded
on corruption through which the wealthy dominate political decision-making (a war of
capital against labor). John Adams favored distribution of public lands to the landless to
create broad-based ownership of property, then the critical component of business capital
in the largely agricultural U.S. Current levels and trends in inequality would almost
certainly have terrified the founders, who believed that broad-based property ownership
was essential to the sustenance of a republic. ((2) See site for further citations)).
Furthermore despite the claims of those on the Christian Conservative Right the truth of
the matter is that the founding fathers themselves did not in fact believe that America was
an inherently Christian nation. Proof of this can be found in one of Americas earliest
political treaties with a foreign power, the treaty of Tripoli, in which it is very specifically
stated in Article IX of the treaty that:
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the
Christian religion as it has in itself no character of enmity [hatred] against the laws,
religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] and as the said States [America] have
never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared
by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an
interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.(3)

How and why has this apparent bastardization of the will of the founding fathers been
allowed to occur? The answer is quite simple and can in fact be found once in yet another
of the works of one of our founding fathers more specifically James Madison. In
Federalist No.10 (one of several papers written by Madison and others in support of a
unified federal government and the creation of a Constitution) James Madison warns of
the dangers of what he terms as factions, which he describes as:
a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole,
who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed
to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the
community.(4)
On the cause of this Madison writes thus:
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them
everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different
circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion,
concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an
attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to
persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions,
have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and
rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for
their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual
animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and
fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite
their most violent conflicts. But the most common and durable source of factions has

been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are
without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors,
and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a
manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser
interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes,
actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and
interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit
of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government. (4).
However while it may be inevitable that such misuses of our founding fathers beliefs will
arise it is not incurable. For as long as the American citizen is willing to look into things
with no other purpose than to ensure the best possible outcome for himself and his fellow
citizenry there is still hope, for the information needed to stop such acts is still out there
and ready to be used.

Citations:
1. "What We Believe." American Conservative Union. Young Americans For Freedom,
n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
2. Solman, Paul, Richard B. Freeman, and Joseph R. Blasi. "What the Founding Fathers
Believed: Stock Ownership for All." PBS. PBS, Oct.-Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
3. Acts Passed at the First Session of the Fifth Congress of the United States of America
(Philadelphia: William Ross, 1797), pp. 43-44.
4. Madison, James. "Federalist 10." The Library of Congress. Thomas, n.d. Web. 8 Oct.
2014.

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