TRANSLATE
The Founding Generation is quite appropriately celebrated as heroes. They worked together to do amazing things. They defeated the most powerful military in the world to win independence. They applied Enlightenment ideals for the first time in the world to craft a new, democratic form of government. The articulated essential right every citizens should enjoy and devised a system of government that has preserved the “blessings of liberty” to us, their posterity.
They were not perfect, of course. Many were slave owners. Some were arrogant. Some were murderers. Some played dirty tricks to win elections. But, the nation survived its first few decades of independence under their leadership.
However, is survival the same thing as success? For all the great things they accomplished, there were many problems and errors in judgement. The War of 1812 is perhaps the best example of the Founders inability to avoid messy problems. In that case, a problem that led to three years of bloodshed and the burning of their new capital.
What do you think? Was the Founding Generation good at governing?
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