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The dul
“The Duel”

Early American history was a complicated time period. Historians are still debating and writing books about it from different angles. One interesting book is Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis that focuses on a group of gifted, but flawed individuals who were confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation. By using examples from the book, I argue that “The Duel” taught us that the people leading our nation were scared for their titles and the nation falling apart.

It can be argued that the people leading our nation’s goal was to keep the union together. For Instance, on page 44, it reads “Tell them from ME, at MY request, for God’s sake, to cease these conversations and threatening about a separation of the Union. It must hang together as long as it can be made to.”-Alexander Hamilton. This message was sent by Alexander Hamilton to the Federalist Party in 1804. A small delegate in New England was considering secession after the Republican party's success, and though Hamilton had seen his own reputation flounder along with that of his party, he nevertheless reveals here his primary goal: to keep the Union together. Even when the relationships between the Founding Fathers were at their most vitriolic, they shared an anxiety that the nation could fall apart.

“Honor mattered because character mattered. And character mattered because the fate of the American experiment with republican government still required virtuous leader to survive. Eventually, the US might develop into a nation of laws and established institutions capable of surviving corrupt or incompetent public officials. But it was not there yet. It still required honorable and virtuous leaders to endure. Both Burr and Hamilton came o the interview because they wished to be regarded as part of such company.” (Page 47) Ellis also views their decades-long "war of words" as a reflection of the fragile state

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