Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics

Historian Brands (The Last Campaign) returns with a reliable account of the early American Republic’s political turmoil, concentrating on four well-known figures: John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. This group, which the American Revolution brought together, were forced apart by the “skulduggery” of their early years governing the new nation. Focusing on the Republic’s first two decades, from 1781 and the beginnings of government under the Articles of Confederation (“the stepchild of American politics”) to Jefferson’s divisive win in the 1800 presidential election, Brands traces the growth of discord among the country’s founders. At the Annapolis Convention in 1786, many aired concerns over the Articles’ loose federation of states. By 1787’s Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, America’s “brawling birth” was in full swing, and some of the founders, such as Patrick Henry, refused to attend. (“I smelt a rat,” he explained.) After the convention, state ratification debates kicked off between Federalists, who favored the Constitution’s strong central government, and Antifederalists, who were concerned about government overreach. Political divisions didn’t end with ratification; Federalists like Adams still “distrusted democracy,” unlike Democratic-Republican Jefferson, his bitter opponent in the 1800 election. Though Brands doesn’t provide much that is new here, his talent for summary and his ability to convey history to general readers shine. Revolutionary War buffs will relish this. (Nov.)