The book starts by discussing some of the problems faced by the “Founding Brothers” when they were trying to establish a free nation. They were trying to accomplish a humongous goal that could end in being charged with treason against the king of Britain, which was bizarre. In fact, the Virginian representative to the American Congress, Benjamin Harrison, once told Elbridge Gerry, the Massachusetts representative to the American Congress, “I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body, you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.”. The Founding Brothers risked everything, their prosperity and quite possibly their life, for the establishment of a new nation apart from Europe.
Tomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, once said that it was clear that the island of Britain could not rule over the continent of America. It simply was not common sense to do so. Along with their immense desire for the continent of America to rule itself, the Founding Fathers applied the well-versed maxim to their task: Men make history; and history they have made. The United States of America is the oldest enduring republic in world history. Our nation has also acquired a set of political institutions and traditions that have lasted throughout her history. However, none of this would have been possible if God’s hand had not been present during the birth of this great nation.
(Ellis, 3-5)
If the British were harder with the revolutionaries from the start, the Continental Army would have most likely been destroyed and the Founding Brothers charged with treason. After all, the British Empire was one of the strongest powers in the world at that time. But despite the incidents, the American Revolution was the first successful revolution against imperial domination. The American independence from Britain was looked at from two different perspectives. The first was the Democratic Republican’s, as they believed that the Revolution was “a liberation movement,” or a new start apart from the political corruption of Europe. The second view was from the Federalist party. In their point of view the Revolution was over a matter of individual liberty. Some may call this belief libertarian. America’s two founding moments were the American independence from the British, as formerly discussed, and the forming of the American nation. The American independence was a hard-earned victory for the Americans, but a bigger problem persists for the founding father i.e. building a new nation. (Ellis, 9-14)
Up until that time, a republic had never survived for any notable length of time. And they had certainly not been as large as the thirteen colonies. The short-term future looked unpromising due to the enormity of what lay before the founders. However, they never lost sight of the hopeful long-term prospects of the nation...
