Joseph J. Ellis - The Quartet

Joseph Ellis is my favorite early American historian.  He writes clearly and persuasively for the layman.

His thesis here is that the ratifying of the Constitution was the real founding of the United States.  The Declaration was an affirmation of 13 sovereign states who became bound in a confederation with what was called The Articles of Confederation.  That confederation was not the country founded by the Constitution.

The drive to adopt the new Constitution was principally the work of James Madison, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and, of course, George Washington.  These four made it happen.

Ellis starts with the bold proclamation that Lincoln was wrong in his famous Gettysburg Address.  Four score and seven years ago our fathers did NOT bring forth a new nation.  A proclamation of independence did not create the United States.  The states were not united until the Constitution went into effect in 1788. Americans tend to see a straight line from 1776 to the Constitution.  In fact it's a blurry line that could have but didn't go in different direction.

All four leading Federalists preferred a stronger statement of federal sovereignty.

There is a long chapter on John Jay.  He is the one founding father that I've never had a feel for.  I still don't after reading this book.

The power and influence of George Washington is amazing.  There never has and never will be a President of his stature.

Lincoln was wrong in his Gettysburg Address saying that the country began on 7/4/76.  P. XI

"In 1863 Lincoln has some compelling reasons for bending the arc of American history in a national direction, since he was then waging a civil war on behalf of a union that he claimed predated the existence of the states.  P. XII

The transition from the DOI to the Constitution cannot be described as natural and inevitable.  P. X111

Ellis thinks the motivation present in Philadelphia was more political than Beardian economic.  I say there is still something about the Progressive position.

By 1787 the confederation was on the verge of dissolution.  P. XVII

The framers of the Constitution subordinated the moral to the political in putting slavery into the framework of the document permitting the continuance and expansion of the peculiar institution.   Did they do the right thing?   They certainly could not have imagined a biracial society.  P. XIX

It is clear that the political framework drawn up by the Articles of Confederation was not designed to function as a national government.  P. 7

For Washington the West replaced the War as the common bond of the people.  P. 27

Ellis says that Hamilton predicted that if the states did not disappear there would be a civil war over slavery.  How chilling.  P. 166

The Federalists had an almost mystical feeling that ratification of the new Constitution was foreordained.  P. 167

New York voted for ratification 30 to 27 after 10 states had already voted affirmatively.  P. 188

There seemed to be a providential feel to the founders as the Constitution went into effect.  P. 191

Jefferson was SO concerned about restricting the powers of the national government whereas Madison initially was not so concerned.

Neither Madison nor Jefferson could foresee that the Supreme Court would be come the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  P. 204

Madison correctly believed that more abuses would occur at the state rather than the state level.  P. 210

Madison's motivations in drafting the BOR were political, not philosophical.  He had no sense that he was writing sacred script.  He was acting not as a political philosopher but a political strategist.  He repeatedly said he didn't think the Constitution needed a bill of rights.  The BOR for Madison was the completion of the ratification process.   P. 212-213

The thing that most intrigues me about Madison is how he went from being an ardent nationalist to a states-righter quickly in 1791.  Ellis says this is a historical mystery---this has "baffled historians."
P. 215

Legitimate government must rest on a popular foundation, but popular majorities cannot be trusted to act responsibly, a paradox that served the country well.  P. 218

Jefferson went to his grave believing that federal authority over domestic policy was a betrayal of the American Revolution rather than a rescue.  Jefferson was wrong.  P. 219

"Jefferson spoke for all the most prominent members of the revolutionary generation in urging posterity not to regard their political prescriptions as sacred script.  It is richly ironic that one of the few original intentions they all shared was opposition to any judicial doctrine of 'original intent.'  To be sure, they all wished to be remembered, but they did not want to be embalmed."  P. 220