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Jefferson and Hamilton: Friendship and Conflict among the Founding Fathers

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Jefferson and Hamilton: Friendship and Conflict among the Founding Fathers
Patriots Pen Draft One If you were to paint a portrait of the Founding Father 's from the average American 's mind, the final result would depict a group of heroic men marching into battle, defeating the dastardly British, and writing the Constitution all in one sitting. Everything would be tinted with rosy hues of red, white, and blue, and patriotic music sounds in the background…right? Wrong. In 1789, a passionate disagreement broke out between Jefferson and Hamilton over the French Revolution. Jefferson and his Republican supporters were in favor of joining the revolutionaries, while Hamilton and the Federalists called for a neutral stance in relation to the fighting. This lead to the bisection of a previously cooperative government into two warring parties. In 1804, Hamilton, who had a disagreement with Jefferson 's vice-president Aaron Burr, agreed to a duel in the outskirts of Weehawken, New Jersey. While Hamilton had reservations about actually firing, Burr did not. He drew his gun and promptly shot Hamilton in the abdomen. Hamilton died the next day. In 1808, the Founding Fathers supposedly ended the slave trade by passing legislation eradicating slavery in all the states north of the Potomac and prohibiting the expansion of slavery into the Northwest Territory. However, they turned a blind eye to the states south of the Potomac, where nine-tenths of the slaves resided. The bloody Civil War ultimately resulted, leading to the deaths of at least 618,000 young American men. There is endless evidence to be heaped upon the growing pile of failures. Of 21 Founding Fathers studied, 14 had owned slaves. This slaveholders included people such as Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. Besides Hamilton, two other Founding Fathers were killed in duels. Countless petty arguments resulted in wide fissures of disagreement. In light of all this, what would I say? Thank you. The Founding Fathers were not perfect


Cited: "Casualties In The Civil War." Casualties In The Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . "Did the Founding Fathers Screw Up?" The American Prospect. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . "Essay Contest 2007-2008 - Hamilton vs. Jefferson: Whose Economic Vision Was Better? | The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis." Essay Contest 2007-2008 - Hamilton vs. Jefferson: Whose Economic Vision Was Better? | The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . "The Founding Fathers and Slavery (Founding Fathers)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . "The Founding Fathers Fallacy." Penn Political Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . "Friendship and Conflict: The Relationship of the U.S. "Founding Fathers"" Student Pulse. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . " ." Our Founding Fathers Sacrificed for the United States of America. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. . "Political Battles." Political Battles. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. .
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