Founding Brothers-Chapter 2 and 3
Fully discuss the following in your groups:
Chapter 2:
1. Why was Hamilton convinced that if his financial plan was not approved in its entirety, the “government and
inevitably the national union itself would collapse.” (48)
2. What part of his plan was being blocked? By whom? Why? (48 and 56)
3. Why is the location of the capital so important to these Founding Brothers? What does/will it represent
about the nation and governance?
4. What was the result of the dinner Jefferson hosted? …and why does Ellis state it was the “most
meaningful dinner party of American history?”
5. Ellis keeps referring to “assumption” –what is he referencing? Why was Madison so against this idea from
Hamilton? (57)
6. Describe James Madison according to Ellis. Consider why he was given the title, “Father of the Constitution
and other accomplishments (52-53).
7. According to Ellis, “Madison possessed the subtlest and most intellectually sophisticated understanding of
the choices facing the new American republic of any member of the revolutionary generation.” Why? Do you
agree?
8. Describe the public debt in 1790.
9. According to Ellis, assumption was really about power. Explain his argument. He continues on to argue that
assumption revived the fears that the central government would “swallow up” the states and their powers
and rights. Why was this fear so dominant? Do you agree with Ellis on this statement—why/why not?
10. How does Ellis describe Hamilton-look especially at how he is different from Madison (60-61).
11. Which of the two, Hamilton or Madison, do you respect more? Why?
12. What did Hamilton think he was doing with his Report on Public Affairs? (61)
13. Ellis argues that Hamilton said “assumption was not a plot to destroy the political integrity of the states; it
was a plan to consolidate debts and be economically beneficial for all.” Do you agree with Ellis that was
Hamilton’s reasoning (consider his personality and position of power). Is he correct that assuming state
debt would set the US on a course of financial security?
14. The 13 original colonies were different from each other in many ways; the states were (mostly) united in
their battle against English oppression, but when the war was done, what would hold them together? How
does Ellis answer this?
15. What 3 reasons does Ellis give that Hamilton’s report was a projection of his own personality?
16. Describe Jefferson according to Ellis.
17. What were the leading places for the capital? (70)
18. In what ways does Jefferson’s dinner table conversation report distort the truth?
19. Why was Virginia’s resolution seen as having an implicit secessionist threat? (77)
20. Why is this entire chapter devoted to the Compromise of 1790?
Chapter 3:
1. What happened in Congress on February 11, 1790?
2. In congressional debates in 1790 about the possible abolition of slavery, Georgia representative James
Jackson attacked the abolitionist Quakers as “outright lunatics” (97) and went on to say, “If it were a
crime, as some assert but which I deny, the British nation is answerable for it, and not the present in
habitants, who now hold that species of property in question” (98). Does Jackson’s refusal to name “that
species of property” point to his own moral discomfort with owning enslaved human beings? To what degree
were the founders complicit in this deliberate refusal to name and acknowledge the moral problem of
slavery?
3. According to article 1, section 9, paragraph 1, when could the Congress deal with the issue of slavery?
4. Why did Madsion tell Jackson to calm down about what the Quakers were asking? What do you think about
Madison when he said, “such things are not contemplated by any gentlemen in the congress?” (83)
5. Why was the second petition to Congress about ending slavery so much more important than the 1 st?
6. Consider the fact that the word slavery is never mentioned in the Constitution—what does this mean about
this issue?
7. What important text did southern representatives use to support slavery?
8. Elbridge Gerry figured it would cost $10 million to compensate southern slave owners for their slaves. The
point was to demonstrate that voters would not accept a tax to cover these costs. So then what happened?
What was the real threat concerning the issue of slavery?
9. “the inability to take decisive action against slavery…permitted the size of the enslaved population to grow
exponentially…over 600,000 Americans would die in the nation’s bloodiest war…” This quote from Ellis is
very important and correct. Why didn’t the” Founding Brothers” address the issue of slavery head on from
the beginning? Why did they address this issue with silence?
10. Do you agree with Ellis’ statement that the Declaration of Independence was “an unambiguous tract for
abolition.” If so, why or why not? Also, if it truly was as Ellis argues, why again wasn’t this issue addressed,
made illegal, long before the writing of the Constitution even?
11. By 1784, what states had made slavery illegal? (90)
12. What proof does Ellis give that slavery “was the central cause of the most elemental division in the
Constitutional Convention?” (91)
13. According to Ellis, “any clear resolution of the slavery question one way or the other rendered ratification
of the Constitution virtually impossible.” In other words, what was most important to the founders? What
was their motivation to not even use the word in the Constitution? (93)
14. Discuss the quote, “no responsible statesman in the revolutionary era had ever contemplated, much less
endorsed, a biracial American society.” (101)
15. What are some conclusions one can make about the 1790 census report? (102)
16. Discuss “what had begun as an initiative to put slavery on the road to extinction (the Quaker petitions the
chapter started with) had been transformed into a decision to extinguish all federal plans for
emancipation.” How did this happen and why? What was Washington’s response to this? (118)
17. “…the badge of mourning the members of the House agreed to wear also bore testimony to the tragic and
perhaps intractable problem that even the revolutionary generation with all its extraordinary talent, could
neither solve nor face.” Discuss this quote. (119)