Founding Brothers Chapter Summary

I am doing my book review on the biography Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis, who is a professor at Mount Holyoke College and who also, has graduated from Yale University with his PhD. Ellis is also known for writing American Sphinx: the Character of Thomas Jefferson and American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. In Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation, Ellis explains many significant events that happened during the evolution of America.
If the first chapter The Duel, Joseph J. Ellis goes into deep discussion about the duel that took place on July 11, 1804 and the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. During this time in history, duels were against the law, so they told as little people as possible. The duel took place at Weehawken, New Jersey. Both Burr and Hamilton brought two of their friends to the duel. Burr shot Hamilton in the hip and Hamilton died later that day. At the time, Aaron Burr was the vice president of the United States while Thomas Jefferson was the

president; this killed his reputation and everyone began to hate him.
In the second chapter The Dinner, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison had a bit of a disagreement over America’s debt. Thomas Jefferson, being president, held a
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Dinner in late June at his house, 57 Maiden Lane New York City, hoping Madison and Hamilton would work out their differences so Americans government could be stronger. To get the gentlemen to come to an agreement, Jefferson came with the plan that Madison’s party members would not vote against Hamilton’s financial plan and that Hamilton had to relocate the nation’s capitol along the Potomac River. On July 9, 1790, the house passes the Residence bill which officially moved the national capitol to Potomac after it was in Philadelphia for ten years. This was decided with a vote of 32 to 29.On July 26, 1790 the Assumption Bill was passed by the house with almost identical votes. Two years later, Jefferson had realized that was the worst mistake of his career as a politician.
In chapter three, The Silence, there is a disagreement about slavery and human trafficking.

The Quakers brought a petition to the House of Representatives to end these things but congress thought it was ridiculous and stated that no laws ending slavery were allowed to be passed until 1808. The problem with this though is Benjamin Franklin had signed a petition to end slavery and he was looked at with great honor. Even though it was very hard to over look this, they continued with their law that no laws could be made against slavery until 1808. They still had done some research on slavery and had discovered that on the 1790 census, there were 694,280 slaves accounted for.
The fourth chapter in this biography, The Farewell, Ellis talks about Washington’s farewell address, which just explained how Washington was now retiring from public life. Some people were shocked by this announcement but many were

not.

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Word had already spread that Alexander Hamilton had help Washington write his announcement and Washington had also threatened in to past to retire. Towards the end of the chapter, Ellis talks about how one of Washington’s many fears was to die in office, since he had almost died from the flu some years earlier, he decided to get out while he could.
In chapter five, The Collaborators, Ellis discusses the election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Because this was only the second presidential election so there wasn’t much format on how things ran. Jefferson and Adams worked very well together because they had different knowledge on America and its history. John Adams won presidency, simply because he made America’s independence his life’s work. When Adams was elected president, Jefferson was put to vice president. They tried to keep their friendship or at least stay acquaintances but it was impossible. While Adams was president, he kept most of Washington’s cabinet members and that was a mistake. Most of these cabinet members were fans of Hamilton and not Adams so eventually they started disagreeing with everything Adams had said; this created a disaster.
In the final chapter, The friendship, Ellis discusses the relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson after presidency. Adams considered Jefferson his biggest enemy; he absolutely hated him. When Jefferson’s daughter had died during childbirth, Adam’s wife thought it was necessary to write to Jefferson’s wife giving her condolences. Jefferson thought this meant their feud was over and they could rekindle their connection. Adams wife got in an argument with Jefferson and this created an even bigger feud between the two rivals. Eventually, they wrote letters constantly to each other
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trying to work things out and become civil with each other. After a long while, they rekindled their friendship.
This was the worst book I have ever read. I love history and I love learning about the revolutionary time period but, I would not recommend this book to anyone. Ellis did get his point across informing the reader about the “secrets” of America. It seems this biography was aimed for the older folks and not seventeen year old girls. Founding Brothers was very dry and needed some action.