In palm beach, florida. Thank you, dr. Brenneman. And good morning, everyone. Im so excited youre here. And welcome to the First Founders and us, the relevance of our origins. For those of you who dont know me, i am gay gaines, and i am an addict of founding American History. In november of 2015, i was having breakfast with joelle liss and speaker Newt Gingrich at mt. Vernon, my very favorite place in america. We were lamenting the fact that most colleges and universities in the United States are no longer teaching founding American History. And in fact most high schools are no longer teaching our founding American History. In 1898, when seniors and colleges and high schools were asked who is the greatest hero, they unanimously said george washington. In 1988, when they were asked the same question, the answer was michael jordan. We were discussing my dream of building a future for the past right here in palm beach, florida. What some might think an unlikely location. But i told them about this incredible organization, the society of the four arts. And its generous benefactors and members and both historians were enthusiastic. The goal was to attract renowned founding history experts here to palm beach to educate and reeducate adults and students and to reach a wider audience through television to stimulate discussion about our unique founding. I presented the idea to the four arts leadership, the wonderful chairman Patrick Henry, president david brenneman, and Education Committee chair shelly guglein. Their reaction was positive. We spoke to our marvelous can do marley sharland, and tireless senior associate of education, donna marie valley, and along with dependable Administrative AssistantStephanie Grant they all supported the idea of taking on this big project. Together, we hope to engage a wider audience in a National Conversation about americas revolutionary generation. Those political leaders present at the creation. The american founding is the big bang in American History, from which our core ideas, values and Political Institutions radiate. No other country in the history of the world came into being as these United States of america. We assembled speeches of unquestioned distinction with a proven capacity to bring a high degree of intellectual sophistication and contagious enthusiasm to a large audience. Today we begin the series with the man who encouraged me to go forward. Dr. Ellis graduated from william mary with a ba and received his ma and doctorate from yale university. He has concentrated his long and distinguished teaching and voluminous writing career on the founding fathers. He told me, and i quote, writing is solitary and teaching is social. I love to do both. Teaching forces you to talk things out. Writing allows you to digest the conversations and perhaps put them in a more concise form. His powerful book american sphinx about Thomas Jefferson won the coveted National Book award for nonfiction in 1997. His fabulous book founding brothers won the Pulitzer Prize for history, also a coveted award in 2001. That christmas i received 13 copies for my family and friends because they all knew i would want to read it. My personal favorite of all time is the quartet, published in 2015. Now, you all know the opening of lincolns gettysburg address. Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation. But hold on. Joe ellis points out that statement isnt exactly accurate. With the articles of confederation in place, the founders had achieved independence from england, but we could well have become a new europe, with 13 independent countries. The quartet, washington, madison, hamilton, and jay, were responsible for making the transition happen, from a confederation of states to a new nation. Ellis clearly and eloquently explains how the United States constitution and the bill of rights came to be, and america was born. Quote, it could be considered the most consequential act of Political Leadership in American History. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm palm beach welcome to dr. Joseph j. Ellis. [ applause ] im not sure im going to be able to live up to that. No human being can and thats going to be one of my themes that the founders were all human and we finally have a moment in our own history we can understand them as creatures like us, imperfect human beings, impressive nevertheless for reasons ill try to explain. I want to begin with a statement of sorts, with a story, and then a question for you. I cant see you very well, but i hope that i can ask you a question. Heres the statement. I think that we must begin with certain assumptions about American Society and culture right now as we address the founders in this lecture series. Namely that the American Public is embarrassingly illiterate about our history, that the scholarly world has largely abdicated its responsibility to communicate beyond the cloistered groves of academe. That Political Correctness is currently operating at epidemic levels in our most distinguished colleges and universities, making serious engagement with controversial issues difficult if not impossible. And our political culture has become so polarized and partisan that communication across ideological lines is virtually nonexistent. Well, the internet should have expanded communication in a way thats wonderful, it has also created a series of bubbles that each of us occupy. And we only talk to our friends on facebook. And our own values, our own prejudices, which we all dearly regard as convictions, are reinforced and are seldom challenged. I think that the one thing we can certainly agree on, with regard to the most recent president ial election, that we live in a divided country. And that one of the functions of this lecture series and my remarks today is to try to create a safe space, back there in the past, in the late 18th century, where we can come together and talk about the controversial issues. If we discover that in that visit back to the past we only are learning things that confirm our own categories and convictions, then were cherry picking the evidence. Neither liberals nor conservatives, republicans or democrats will be fully happy with the results of these deliberations. But in fact, the very categories we think in will be challenged because in the same way that the founders looked back to the greek and roman classics, to cicero, the founders are our classics, if you will. If you want to go to literary terms, are shakespeares. We need to go back to them to revisit the eternal issues and try to find ways to talk to each other that we right now cannot do. My story, its designed to talk about the fuss about the founders. My remarks are under the title whats the fuss about the founders . I wrote a book about Thomas Jefferson and my publisher sent me on a book tour, and at one place, at one moment, in the book tours are a blurry thing. Its like a political campaign. I was in richmond, virginia, and i gave a talk. And my treatment of jefferson was not totally complimentary. The people that burn incense to mr. Jefferson in charlottesville were not completely happy with my thoughts. And im a virginian. I even went to the same college that jefferson went to. My hair, whats left of it, is the same color as jeffersons hair. But at the end of the talk, and the q a, a woman got up, a woman of a certain age, well coifed and well attired and im not going to be able to replicate her accent perfectly, a richmond accent is more southern than certain parts of alabama. Mr. Ellis, i have listened to your remarks on mr. Jefferson and, mr. Ellis, everything you said is wrong. And i know its wrong because mr. Jefferson appeared to me in my bedroom last night. And he told me you were going to say these bad things about him. And then her final line, this was a great line, it sort of knocked me for a loop, mr. Ellis, you are a mere pigeon on the great statue of Thomas Jefferson. I said, i said, thank you very much. Next question, please. I was flustered. I didnt know what to say. But she came up to get her book signed. And she gave me had her card. Had her name on it. It said poet. And i said to her then, and i mustered this up, i said, madam, it is not really important whether you regard me as a pigeon. It is very important that you regard jefferson as something other than a statue. [ applause ] and my remarks today are to create real live human beings rather than statues. And in order to move in us in that particular direction, i want to ask you a question. I cant see you clearly, but i am operating on the assumption that many of you out there are parents and grandparents. An oral response would be is that true . Yes. Me too. Have you had this experience, when your children are very young, you can do no wrong. You are their gods. You are omniscient. And then they cross a line. Whether that line is metabolic or psychiatric or purely chronological, i dont know. But when they cross that line, you can do no right. Indeed, in purely freudian terms, they want to kill you. Part of an eddipal complex. That syndrome is the pattern describing most historiography, more scholarship and most interpretive work on the founders. It is this oscillation, this swoonish swing, between idolization and evisceration. Iconic versus deadest whitest males in American History. Its a cartoon. Its really two sides of the same cartoon. And i think were at a point in our history for several reasons that ill specify when we can move past the cartoon. Now, there are reasons why all new nations seem to need heroic founders who are myth followingized and capitalized in the literature over the years. Rome has romulus and remis. Britain has king arthur, spain has el sid. But notice all of those people are fictional characters. The american founders were real people. And we created in the 19th century a mythology surrounding them, probably for sensible reasons. But its long since passed the time when those mythological renderings are really credible orel vent. In fact, there is this dialogue between adams and benjamin rush, i recommend to you, it is available in a book called spur of fame. Here is rush. What im going to tell you is that most of the founders dont want to be mythologized. Rush, i shall continue to believe that the whole idea of great men are a lie, and that there is very little difference in that superstition which leads us to believe in what the world has called great men and in that which leads us to believe in witches and conjurers. Adams, the thesis and funerals in honors of washington is as corrupt a system as that by which saints were canonized and cardinals, popes, kings and the whole hierarchical system was created. Washington itself would object to the pilgrimages to mount vernon as the mecca of jerusalem. Adams grandson, in editing his letters and his works in the 1850s had a preface in which he we are beginning to forget that the patriots of former days were men like ourselves. We are almost irresistibly led to ascribe to them in our imaginations certain gigantic proportions and superhuman qualities without reflecting that this at once robs their character of consistency and their virtues of all merit. One of the things that trarlz franc Charles Francis adams is saying is if these guys were all gods what in heavens name do we have to learn from them . Because certainly were not. So i think that we are at a moment when we have begun to move past this. I guess, how many of you have seen hamilton . Unbelievable play. Im not a fan of the hiphop and didnt think i would like it. But it is the single most interesting depiction of hamilton and if you were to ask me, and i supposedly know something about this, which of the founders is going to end up getting this attention, the last one i would have picked is h hamilton. And i called ron chernow and i said, you lucky son of a gun. [ laughter ] why didnt they pick jefferson . There are kids ive driven kids to soccer matches in the last couple of months. Who are in the back seat reciting lines from hamilton the play because theyve got the script, or the record of the script. Have you seen it . It is almost like the harry potter phenomenon among children and adolescents. By the way, is there a bunch of middle school kids here . Okay. I thought there might somebody told me there might be. I have to watch my language a little bit. At any rate, in addition to the hamilton phenomena, humanizing hamilton, that there have been books over the last 10 to 20 years, some by speakers in this series, Walter Isaacson and stacy schifflin on lynn. David mcculloch on adams and the year 1776. Ron chernow on both hamilton and washington. And even yours truly has contributed in fact, three of his three boys have all had their College Educations paid in part because of books that were sold. Why is this happening . And now, there is a book on the bestselling list about jefferson and the tripoli pirates. One reason is that each of the founders have been the subject of massive documentary research into each of their papers, most of which was begun in the middle of the 20th century, and those collections have been marching toward at a stage a very glacial pace, but we now have into their papers and one into the 20th century, and each of those collections have been going towards a glacial pace that we now have for the founders as a whole, the fullest documentary record ever put together for to a political elite in world history. All you have to do is to sit down and read 87 volumes of the washington papers, which i had to do, but the material is there. To do, and the material there. Theres the second reason that i think that the founders are in vogue. We are unhappy with the current Political Leadership. We believe that the Gold Standard is back there in the late 18th century, and the current leadership, republican and democrat, represents a debased form of that currency. Or as henry adams, the grandson of john, put it in the middle of the 19th century, if you look at the history of the american presidency chronologically, youve got to believe that darwin got it exactly backwards. [ laughter ] all right. We are at a moment that we want to seize and we want to humanize these people. We want to learn from them. Who are these people . What am i talking about . The founders. Okay. There are two foundings. Not one. One occurs in 1776, the core document is the declaration of independence. The core experience of the war for independence successfully waged. The second founding is in 1787. The core document is the constitution. The core experience is the creation of a National Government in the 1790s that endures despite what all european experts thought was going to happen. These are very different moments with different impulses. I will talk about that at the end. In order to make the list of the most prominent founders, those at the top of the american version of mount olympus, you have to have been a major player in both foundings. Now, that is going to limb nate certain people who were prominent at one but not the other founding. It is eliminating John Marshall, george mason, john jay maybe, although jay is coming up. If you were investing in the founders put your money on jay. Hes going ascend in worth. Sam adams. Henry, Patrick Henry, Robert Morris, and you probably dont know who Robert Morris is, gouverneur morris, the dont make it. Who makes it . There are six people who make the list. This is, i guess, my list, but i defend it. They are george washington, pri movement s primeos inte inter paris, the foundingest father of them all. They would say he was the greatest. They all said that. No disagreement. Hes the toughest to get to know. Benjamin franklin, the grandfather amongst the fathers. Franklin was born roughly the same time as jonathan edwards. He grew up knowing increased mather in boston. Hes an old guy. He at the time in an International Poll would rank higher than washington, because of his reputation as a scientist in england and as a philosophe in france. Washingtons key value is judged. He got all the big things right. Franklins is wisdom. Hes probably the wisest of them all. People say, well, what would franklin say about the Affordable Care act . You cant do that. So ive developed the answer. He would not care because hes on medicare. [ laughter ] john adams, i like him best, and you will see why, because he tells you more than any of the founders in his diary and his letters. Hes probably the best read. Hes the most contrarian. Hes the feistiest. Hes the most human. Thomas jefferson, probably the most intellectually sophisticated, and the most resonant in both senses, meaning he is the greatest and the most lyrical and the author of the most famous words in American History. We hold these truths to be selfevident. And also the most racist and the most explicitly so racist and the most duplicitous. None of the political shenanigans that were watching in our world today would at all surprise jefferson. James madison. The most politically shrewd, the guy who makes things happen on the ground. If god were in the details, madison would be there to greet him upon arrival. Hes the lawyers founder. He thinks like a lawyer, even though he was never trained like a lawyer. You tell me what my client, who it is, and i will prepare the case. Jennifer will tell him who his client is. And the tandem of jefferson and madison are the single most Important Partnership in the fou