Founding Fathers Research Paper

Words: 679
Pages: 3

The founding fathers had a lot of principles and beliefs, I mean, who wouldn’t if they were building a country from the ground up. First, we have the ideal of “freeing the slaves” or the end/ acknowledgment of slavery. Second, we have ideal “control of people not government” where the government is controlled by the people and their decisions are based on the government controlling the people. Yes, there are many ideals the founding fathers had for their growing country, but I believe these are the most important due to the fact they are two important factors in our country today also. Slavery was a big topic talked about by many of our founding fathers. Jefferson wrote in the Rights of British America, “The abolition of domestic slavery is …show more content…
In a letter to the Lafayette Marquis, Washington wrote “The scheme, my dear Marquis. which you propose as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart.” (Washington, April 5th, 1783) Even though this doesn’t seem like much, Washington is praising Marquis for proposing the idea of emancipation, which tells us not only that Washington doesn't have an issue with it, but also that he may want to take on his proposal in freeing slaves. In a letter to R. Lushington, John Jay wrote, “The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people.” (John Jay, March 15th, 1786) Like the others, Jay was visibly upset about slavery and peoples choices to keep it. What I like about this letter is that Jay was just writing to his dear friend about an issue he felt angry about. This reminded me so much of today and how we are always complaining about something, especially with all the growing