The 250th anniversary of America’s founding is less than a year away. To celebrate the occasion, The Drew Mariani Show has been examining the important characters and events surrounding the founding. Dr. Susan Hanssen, professor of history at the University of Dallas, joined Drew recently to cover three of the founding American presidents: Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
The second third presidents were political rivals who sparred against each other in two presidential contests – the elections of 1796 and 1800. Adams was a “man from the North of Puritan descent whose family had come over on the Mayflower,” Hanssen said. Conversely, Jefferson was a southern slave owner from Virginia. Both men signed the Declaration of Independence and died the same day 50 years later (July 4, 1826).
Despite their political differences, the former first lady, Abagail Adams brought the two men together and “convinced them to start correspondence,” Hanssen said. The letters reveal their different interpretations of the American Revolution.
Adams, Hanssen explains, had a conversative view of the Revolution – one that “protected the English rights and liberties that we had already had in the colonies and that were being progressively taken away…by the British Parliament.”
Jefferson, on the other hand, was much more radical, and saw the Founding akin to the French Revolution. According to Hanssen, the two men were “racing to the death to see whose interpretation would stay with the country.”
Adams, on his death bed, unaware that Jefferson was also dying, said, “Jefferson still lives!”
James Madison
America’s fourth president, James Madison, Hanssen says, was a realist. He was famously quoted saying, “if men were angels, no government would be needed.”
This perspective set him apart from some of the other contemporary revolutionaries who thought “human nature could stand on its own without grace,” Hanssen said.
The Madison also played a pivotal role in shaping the United States Constitution before his presidential service. He was one of its chief architects, writing drafts of the Constitution as well as writing the “Federalist Papers” arguing for its adoption with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.
Finally, he was also a “window into the Constitutional convention,” Hanssen said, because he took so many detailed notes.
Check out the whole conversation here.