The Swamp logo

Were the Founding Fathers good or bad people?

Using ethics to answer a very divisive question

By Landon GirodPublished 4 years ago 8 min read
Like

Growing up, I was given a highly polarized image of the men who founded the United States of America. On one side of the spectrum was a portrait of glorious god-like figures who embodied liberty and held eternally great ideas. The other was evil slave owners who didn’t care about anyone except rich people and money. Are they both true? Is there a grey area somewhere in between these two highly contrasted images? No, of course not. Usually, I can find a grey area in almost any subject, but not this one. Because neither of these images are accurate at all. Not all of the founding fathers had perfect ideas, and not all of them believed in slavery. Both images are either a mythical and excessively cynical one. They’re founded on extreme bias and sensational interpretations of American colonial history. Yes, many of the founding fathers were rich and were being taxed by the British. That doesn’t mean money was the only factor in their rebellion against Britain. Particularly for the founding fathers who actually took the time to build a well-designed government in place of merely ruling as kings. Not to mention the founding fathers who were not a part of the wealthy class. Legends like Samuel Adams, who was such a charismatic figure they named a brewery after him in Boston. Although he did come from a wealthy family, he wasn’t concerned with money but was more of a political idealist.

On the other side of the coin, the founding fathers also should not be worshipped like immaculate leaders in glistening snowy white wigs. Sure they had some good ideas, but they also did own slaves and had some pretty dumb ideas. Like only allowing land-owning white men to vote. Not exactly a real democracy, is it? Many of them were driven by their business’s profit margins and the adverse effects the British Empires forced taxes had on them.

So, how do we determine if the founding fathers were good or bad people?

DEEDS OF OUR FATHERS

To analyze this properly, we’re going to get rid of the whole concept of good and bad. I mean, if you’re asked honestly, how can anyone even determine what is good and what’s bad using such generic terms like ‘good’ and ‘bad’? Someone’s bad can be considered someone else’s good and vice versa. For example, a republican might see lower taxes as good and higher tax rates as bad. While a Democrat might oppositely view the issues, switching the labels on the two ideas entirely. Probably not a good idea to move forward with those unclear blanket terms.

Instead, we’re going to use basic moral ethics to base our conclusion on the philosophical principle that good are the occurrences that do not harm people. And bad being the unnecessary harm of other people. In other words, if your actions have an adverse effect on other people, that’s bad, and if they have a positive effect, then that is good. Now you can’t use these principles on things like high or low taxes, for example. Issues like that are far too murky. Mostly because both sides can list positive and negative affects for both arguments. Whereas, with killing Jews during the second world war, we would obviously say that it is very, very bad. And in the case of the founding fathers, slavery is also horrible. The question is, did they actually find it moral to practice enslaving other human beings. This is the primary moral argument made against the founders of America: Slavery. Today we view slavery as a horribly evil concept, and rightly so. It’s effortless, however, for us to look back at our ancestors for being evil slave owners and condemn them ruthlessly. Just like one day, our descendants will condemn us for driving gas-fueled cars and using plastic when there were lower-emission electric and non-disposable options available.

I do judge them, personally, for not seeing the clear evidence that the slaves they owned were just as intelligent as them, and owning them was beyond wrong. I think, however, that we should judge them on a more complex level than condemning them to pure evil. Especially on the issue of slavery, I think we should judge them as possible futurists.

Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington had mixed relationships with slavery. When Jefferson was President, he actually passed a law making the international slave trade illegal. He even drafted many laws emancipating the slavery period. He, unfortunately, held the belief that blacks were mentally inferior to whites, which is, of course, total bull shit. George Washington has similar views. He ordered that after his death, the remaining slaves he owned should be freed. But for selfish reasons, he did not release them while he was alive. These actions show that perhaps, at least a couple of the biggest founding fathers had an acute awareness that what they were doing was wrong. This, of course, doesn’t negate that they still owned and bought slaves in their lifetime and that those were despicable acts. But I believe that this tells us how complicated their deeds were. Particularly when we, in the future, are trying to decide whether they were good or bad.

Another complicated issue is the true intentions of their rebellion against Britain. After the war was over, the founding fathers established a democracy that wasn’t very democratic at all. To vote, you had to be a land-owning White man. That discounted most of the population of America at the time. Conveniently putting all the voting power in the hands of men who were wealthy enough to own their own land, Americans just like them. The southern founding fathers, like Jefferson and Monroe, wanted a more agrarian society where landowners could create vast plantation-based economies. On the flip side, the fathers from the north wished to build a trade-based economy for their merchant ship companies. It was, for the most part, a lot of super-rich dudes getting rid of a government so they could run one themselves. Some founding fathers saw it differently. One of them was Alexander Hamilton. He saw America as a whole, not a money-making machine. Though he was very interested in making lots of cash, achieving high status, and being a badass rapper in a musical, Hamilton had a more universal version of what America could be. Where the state’s functioned together as one nation—as one economy. Other, more futuristic thinkers in the founding fathers called themselves federalists. These men wanted to create a federation instead of a messy conglomerate of states that functioned on their own accord. It was their vision that eventually won over. Through time, true democracy was provided for anyone who’s old enough to vote for the leaders they prefer. Does this create an equal balance between the evil and good deeds they committed?

That’s how most people would decide if they or any person is good or bad as if humans’ entire life can be judged on some magical morality scale. This idea is highly inefficient in measuring one’s goodness or badness. Especially since many Americans still have different degrees of what is good and bad. Some people think that capitalism is wrong or that socialism is evil. But how can they both be wrong? If two groups of people are both saying their economic systems are beneficial for human society, then, on the other hand, saying their rivals is detrimental for society, how can they both be right? Either system has worked to a certain degree throughout history, and each has its problems. Now think of an individual who breaks up with someone over texting. Some will say it’s disrespectful to break up with your significant other over text. Some will say it’s less confrontational, and the distance aids the process of moving on. Setting the obvious evil of slavery aside, how can we use the deeds of the founders as weights on a scale. One tray carrying good and the other carrying bad. Weight, however, is absolute, represented by a concrete number. This makes it very difficult to put anyone on a scale when the weight we’re using is relative. The only thing that isn’t relative is the effect of the founder’s actions. We will determine whether they are good or bad through studying what happened because of the founding father, not the men individually.

A FAIR CONCLUSION

I think we can all agree that ethics defines these men as morally complex individuals. Overall I would say they did just as many ethically wrong things as ethically good things. Therefore making them what we all should know them as Human beings. As human beings, I would neither glorify them nor condemn them. They are selfish, power-hungry, passionate leaders who started a revolution against a power that was oppressing them. If they hadn’t democracy as we know it today might not exist. That is a part of their legacy. But so is the capitalistic wealth gap we see today, and a slew of other problems America has caused over its relatively brief history. Their personal legacy, however, is as complicated as any ethics debate, and somehow clear as a still water reflection. The founding fathers were good in the clearest, yet strangest way possible. They were good because they were bad. By that, I mean, they did a lot of evil things and governed their nation in a selfish, rich man focused style where half of the country owned other human beings. But it was through these mistakes that they laid the foundation for the world to embrace freedom where everyone could eventually vote and have a say. Therefore, the founding fathers inadvertently did a lot of good for the world. Sometimes it isn’t the things we do on purpose that have the most significant impact, it’s the accidents, like real democracy, that does the most good for humanity. And though we have a long way to go, we must give the founding fathers some credit for being apart of the chaotic butterfly effect that is human history. Even if they were greedy scumbags while they were alive.

opinion
Like

About the Creator

Landon Girod

Hi I'm Landon Girod. I've had two books not make the New York Times bestseller list. And most of articles and short stories have yet to win any awards.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.