Valid Criticisms of the Founding Fathers: A THOROUGH Examination

Outside the realm of theology have any humans ever lived for whom there are no valid criticisms? If so, I certainly haven’t heard of them.

Of course, there are valid criticisms of the Founding Fathers. They were fallible human beings. They made mistakes. They held prejudices. They behaved hypocritically and engaged in doublethink. They lied. They professed beliefs that they did not live up to. So far, I haven’t even moved outside the realm of criticisms that are true of all humans.

Exclusion of Certain Groups

Specifically, for a group who talked about liberty and equality and how all men were created equal, they excluded a shocking number of men from those considerations, to say nothing of women.

George Washington, the esteemed general and future president, started the French and Indian War stupidly. No, I don’t mean the American Revolutionary War. Go listen to History Has Its Eyes On You from Hamilton. No, the musical isn’t historically accurate, but the lines sung by the character of Washington reflect on the start of the French and Indian War:

I was younger than you are now
When I was given my first command
I led my men straight into a massacre
I witnessed their deaths firsthand
I made every mistake and felt the shame rise in me
And even now I lie awake knowing history has its eyes on me

Slavery and Hypocrisy

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, was a slave owner. So was George Washington, but let’s focus on Thomas for a moment. The man who wrote:

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness

owned his fellow men as chattel. His relationship with Sally Hemings was worse when you take into account not only her age but the fact that, in many ways, he treated her as his common law wife. There is no way that a man of his intelligence could have had any doubts that this was a person or that his children by her were no different from any other human being save for in trivial appearances, and yet he held her and them in bondage.

John Adams, a diplomatic and one-time vice president, understood the evil of slavery and yet he compromised with it. He put off the work of fixing that particular mess for future generations, even unto the present day, trusting in others to clean up his mess. More he, in spite of the plea of his beloved wife, did forget the ladies. Abigail Adams was but one of a remarkable cast of female intelligences of that era. She and others like her were proof positive that the life of the mind, which was so dear to these men, was not limited to their sex. Yet, and still, when it came time to draft new laws and throw off old systems, no effort towards women’s equality was attempted, let alone obtained.

The Legacy of Imperfections

These are just a few specific criticisms of a few of the more prominent Founding Fathers. One could write and people have written whole books about each of their failings, and more about dozens of others who were members of that fellowship.

Now does that mean that the work they created is terrible? No, no it doesn’t.

If everything created by an imperfect person was without value, then nothing made by human hands would have value at all. But it does mean that they were not perfect and neither was their creation. To their credit, they would have been the first to tell you that, and they would have been horrified at the mere suggestion that they could be seen in any other light. They were not gods, and no angels sat upon their shoulders whispering in their ears. They were just men doing the best they could in spite of their all-too-human failings.