Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 10, Number 2, Summer 2001 BOOKS America’s Battle for the General Welfare f history is a battleground for ideas, standard against which all the other Iand ideas are embodied in individual ideas and personalities should be personalities—both of which proposi- judged. tions I believe to be true—then historian Ellis organizes his presentation Joseph J. Ellis made an appropriate around a series of six “turning point” choice in deciding to present this book events, four of which are indeed crucial on America’s Revolutionary period to the subsequent history of the nation. through vignettes of the interactions between the early United States’ leading The Turning Points personalities. For the most part, Ellis The first turning point is “The Duel,” chose the most significant actors—John an account of what went into the 1804 Adams, Aaron Burr, Ben Franklin, assassination of revolutionary hero and Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, first Treasury Secretary Alexander James Madison, and George Washing- Hamilton by Aaron Burr. This truly ton. The major omission, on the positive was a determining event, because it Founding Brothers: side, was Mathew Carey, the Irish emi- eliminated Hamilton, the genius who The Revolutionary Generation gré recruited by Benjamin Franklin, was continuing Franklin’s fight to turn by Joseph J. Ellis whose story would provide the direct the United States into a great manufac- New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000 288 pages, hardcover, $26.00 bridge into the next generation of true turing republic, from the political scene. American patriots. But Ellis’s rendition is disturbing in its The problem with this book, in my equivocation on Burr, who should be were aired on this occasion, leading to a view, lies in the level on which Ellis presented as the British traitor he was, satirical response from Franklin, on the presents the ideas which were at war but who appears instead as an arrogant rights of Muslims to enslave Christians. over the first crucial decade of our genius with the same qualities as The result, we learn, was the passage of republic’s existence. As he states in the Hamilton. a resolution saying Congress had no preface, Ellis sees the American Revolu- The second vignette is called “The right to interfere with slavery per se—a tion as a paradoxical development, Dinner,” and it depicts the fight over resolution which was not resolutely shown in the tension between the where the new nation’s capital would be challenged again until the 1830’s, by republican ideals it represented in its situated, and the negotiations between John Quincy Adams. revolt against the British Empire, on the James Madison and Alexander Hamil- The fourth vignette, entitled “The one side, and the centrifugal forces ton at a dinner party hosted by Jeffer- Farewell,” presents George Washing- against a unified republic, which were son, which would resolve the issue. The ton’s concept of holding the nation to defend local sovereignty against the result of the 1790 negotiations, was that together around its mission as the central government. This tension, he Madison agreed to Hamilton’s plan for world’s leading republic, as found in his says, was resolved for a period during dealing with Revolutionary War debt, Farewell Addresses to Congress and the the Civil War, but not permanently. and the new national bank, while it was nation. Ellis correctly points out that The paradox would be resolved, if agreed that the nation’s capital, at that Washington’s vision of a Federal gov- Ellis had presented the Idea of the point located in New York City, would ernment promoting manufactures, agri- American Revolution in its true histor- be built up from scratch in a region cultural improvements, a national uni- ical and philosophical nature, as a adjacent to Virginia, now the District of versity, an expanded navy, and a nation- political implementation of the ideas of Columbia. al military academy, was the precursor the General Welfare developed out of The third, and most under-reported, to the program of internal improve- the Italian Renaissance, and embodied issue taken up is called “The Silence,” a ments by President John Quincy in the more than 65-year career of Ben- review of the way slavery was dealt with Adams, to be followed by Henry Clay jamin Franklin. It is true that no other in the Congress in 1790. Here we read and Abraham Lincoln. And he notes the of the “founding brothers” had an about how petitions to end both the tragedy involved in the fact, that other understanding of the Revolutionary slave trade and slavery were introduced leading Virginians were aligned against idea on the same level as Franklin, a in 1790, including by Benjamin Washington’s perspective. circumstance which set the stage for Franklin himself, and how they were The last two vignettes are much the battles that eventually nearly tore dealt with. Ellis reports how the South’s more trivial, involving the ups and the nation apart. But Franklin’s is the ultimate arguments in defense of slavery downs of the personal and political rela- 89 © 2001 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. tionship between John Adams and the bulk of the first half of the Nine- for many weeks, and was awarded a Thomas Jefferson. Here the connection teenth century. This is where the ques- Pulitzer Prize. For an American popula- between the individuals and the histori- tion of the Carey family, starting with tion which has so obviously lost its sense cal process is much more muddied, with Mathew, comes in. Mathew Carey, with of historical identity, this is a positive the result that the chapters are dominat- his publication of Hamilton’s work, and sign. But, to get the true picture of what ed more by personality than politics. his own seminal The Olive Branch in the American Revolution represents, one 1819, provides the link which leads, is still required to read the works of the A Lost Sense of History along with the work of John Quincy LaRouche movement on that history— In a sense, this lowering of the level of Adams, Henry Clay, and others, into the not to mention original sources of the discussion reflects what happened second American Revolution accom- leading individuals themselves. One “objectively” in American history, as the plished by Abraham Lincoln. hopes that reading this book will pro- intellectual descendants of Franklin and It is surely a good thing that Founding voke more individuals to do just that. Washington were kept out of power for Brothers made it onto the Bestseller List —Nancy B. Spannaus ‘Great Projects’ of the Golden Renaissance olitical scientist Roger Masters has nects the great mercantile and manufac- Pdeveloped an obsession: He must turing city of Florence to the Mediter- uncover all he can about one of the most ranean Sea. Arno diversion was an old fascinating collaborations in all histo- dream for Florence, for both economic ry—the working relationship and and military-political reasons. In the apparent friendship between Leonardo 1440’s, a generation before Leonardo da Vinci (at the time, the greatest artist and Machiavelli, at the height of that and scientist in the world) and Niccolo flowering of human optimism which we Machiavelli, then the world’s leading would later call the Renaissance, people political theorist. For Masters’ readers, began to think that diversion was final- at least, this obsession is a very useful ly, technically possible, and the city’s one. best minds, including the genius archi- This is Masters’ second crack at the tect Filippo Brunelleschi, began to plan subject. In 1996, he produced Machia- in earnest. velli, Leonardo, and the Science of Power, Masters begins with an exciting Fortune Is a River: a book that began with a competent, if proposition: “The history of public Leonardo da Vinci and unacceptably broad, sketch of the works that control rivers is . a good Niccolo Machiavelli’s Leonardo-Machiavelli collaboration, but summary of the process of civilization.” Magnificent Dream then suddenly careened into a bizarre, He then weaves an entertaining nar- To Change the Course of “politically correct” disquisition on the rative that pieces together just about Florentine History relationship of political science to socio- every scrap of what tragically little by Roger D. Masters biology. information we now know about the New York, Plume Books, 1999 288 pages, paperback, $12.95 One likes to think that Masters real- Arno project, starting with Leonardo’s ized that his first book had done injus- early fascination with the river during tice to the subject. For whatever reason, his days at the court of Milan, and while diplomatic and intelligence post in the he has clearly spent the next three-plus training with the great geometer Luca Florentine republic). On the face of it, years widely reading in this area. The Pacioli. This fascination fueled Leonar- as Masters amply documents, Machi- result is a solidly researched synopsis of do’s map series of the Arno valley avelli wanted Leonardo to divert the much of the best literature on both (whose uncanny detail and accuracy river for purely military reasons: to Leonardo and Machiavelli. In fact, one would satisfy a modern reconaissance ensure the defeat of the neighboring could easily recommend Masters’ new satellite interpreter), and also, as Masters city of Pisa, which also fronted the book to a reader who wanted a short, rightly emphasizes, gave Leonardo the Arno. However, it seems clear, especial- undemanding dual biography of the two ability to include the famous “bird’s eye ly in the context of Machiavelli’s many geniuses.