Essay --

Joseph J. Ellis: Founding Brothers Founding Brothers a collection of stories by Joseph J. Ellis that discusses various events following the American Revolution and their impact on the budding Republic. The first theme talks about all key individuals that had a conglomerate of personalities and ideologies among the founding fathers. Because of this, it balanced the government and prevented one over arching outlook from sculpting the new government. This can easily transition into the second theme by Ellis. Despite the fact that this group of minds behind the birth of our government, had many different passionate perceptions on how said government be formed, they were still bound by close personal relationships. The second theme is present throughout the entire book. Especially in â€Å"The Dinner†, which I will discuss in more detail later on. Many of the important decisions early on were not only deliberated in public, but were also debated and contested in private at meetings and dinner parties. In the third theme, it was in their culminating interest to sweep slavery under the rug. Even though they knew it was an important issue, they also knew bringing it to public would wreak havoc on the new but feeble government. In the fourth theme, Ellis illustrates how the founding fathers used the advantages described in the previous themes to romanticized the interactions they had. They were very intelligent men who knew what kind of decisions they implemented would be important moments in history. They used their personal relationships in private meetings to shape how future generations would view them and the new government. They had specific control over how the events would be recorded. This made it easy for them to embellish wh... ...after the dinner conversation had ended. Jefferson was able to make â€Å"The Dinner† appear as though he brought Madison and Hamilton together for one fateful meeting that would determine the outcome of two of the most high profile decisions made in early government. Though the full scope wasn't probably apparent, Jefferson had a way of ensuring these types of meetings would universally be looked back on the way he wanted. Many of the discussions leading up to the dinner conversation were conveniently tucked away. This made the dinner conversation out to be much more important and decisive than it probably actually was. Ellis repeatedly touches these three themes throughout â€Å"The Dinner† to illustrate how much personal relationships, ideas, personalities, and presumed control affected the way our government was formed, and how we view the process as it took place.