In this series of books—initiated by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press and continuing with the Center for the Study of the American Constitution—each title focuses on a single Founder. Contemporaries provide vivid and insightful descriptions that make that Founder come to life. Quotations by the Founder describe his contemporaries as well as himself. A final compilation of emblematic quotations provide semi-autobiographical glimpses on a wide variety of topics.
All titles in this series are available for purchase at our online bookstore.
Alexander Hamilton’s origins haunted and vexed him throughout his remarkable, all-too-brief life. Born on the small Caribbean island of Nevis in 1755, to unmarried parents, Hamilton did not enjoy the privileges of wealth or heredity by which so many of his contemporaries advanced to the highest levels of power. Yet in spite of his origins—maybe to some degree because of them—Hamilton achieved through natural ability, ambition, and opportunity, prevailing influence in the American Revolution and the government created thereafter, eventually securing his place in the American pantheon.
No other person could ever achieve the preeminent position in American history and culture occupied by George Washington. Whether as a general in the Revolutionary War, the man unanimously elected president of the Constitutional Convention, or the first president of the United States he helped to create, Washington cast a shadow over his era and the republic that has scarcely abated in over two centuries.
America has had few political thinkers who have rivaled James Madison. The son of a wealthy planter, Madison was an unhealthy child beset by physical infirmities throughout his long life, and grew into a cerebral man. Madison left Virginia to attend the College of New Jersey, aspiring to be a college professor. Instead, Madison returned to his native state after completing his studies, went into public service, and became one of the most influential, guiding voices of the Founding Era. He referred to himself as “a child of the Revolution.” Madison’s Virginia Plan would be used as a blueprint for the Constitutional Convention, where the Articles of Confederation would be replaced with a new Constitution that throughout bore traces of Madison’s influence.
After the war for American independence, John Jay was the most important public official under America’s unique parliamentary system of government known as the Articles of Confederation. As Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Jay became the Confederation’s de facto prime minister, writing over 500 reports that Congress almost always adopted without alteration. Jay strongly encouraged George Washington to come out of retirement and attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Jay energetically supported the new Constitution as a co-author of the influential series of newspaper essays called “The Federalist” and as the most effective Federalist spokesman in the New York ratifying convention in 1788. After the adoption of the Constitution, Jay became the country’s first Chief Justice in 1789.