{"id":11197,"date":"2016-03-28T07:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=11197"},"modified":"2016-03-28T20:36:21","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T02:36:21","slug":"montana-ethic-project-a-look-at-the-founding-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/03\/montana-ethic-project-a-look-at-the-founding-fathers\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Ethic Project: A look at the Founding Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brittan\"<\/a>

Joey and Libbie Early<\/p>

Gordon Brittan, a professor at Montana State University, talks about “The Founding Fathers” in this chapter of “The Montana Ethic Project.”<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the fourth\u00a0chapter of the 32-part video series \u201cThe Montana Ethic Project.\u201d This chapter features Gordon Brittan speaking on “The Founding Fathers.”\u00a0You can watch the whole video below. Here is how this chapter opens:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Good afternoon. My name is Gordon Brittan and I have taught at Montana State University since 1973.\u00a0I\u2019ve specialized in the 18th\u00a0century and tried to uncover for myself and my students basic core\u00a0principles of the American Enlightenment generally, but more especially the background of the United\u00a0States Constitution.”<\/p>\n

Here is another, edited excerpt from Brittan’s\u00a0presentation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“They (the Founding Fathers) held all of these common core notions and widely separated views concerning this country and its\u00a0future; what they didn\u2019t have was a strong sense of civility.<\/p>\n

“There is all this talk lately about how we need more civility. I\u2019m all for civility. We all are for civility. But\u00a0we need to remember that the Founding Fathers abused one another all the time. I\u2019m just going to\u00a0quote very quickly Alexander Hamilton, a great man, on Jefferson:<\/p>\n

\u201c’A man of profound ambition and violent passions,’ and then he went on to say, ‘\u2026the most intriguing\u00a0man in the United States.’<\/p>\n

“By ‘intriguing’ he meant up to his elbows in intrigues of particularly notorious kind, not that he was a\u00a0fascinating man. He called him, ‘\u2026the intriguing incendiary, the inspiring turbulent competitor, the\u00a0heart and soul of faction.’<\/p>\n

And not to be outdone, here is Jefferson on Hamilton:<\/p>\n

\u201c’I will not suffer my retirement to be clouded by the slanders of a man whose history from the moment\u00a0at which history can stoop to notice him, is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of the country.’<\/p>\n

“Now what\u2019s interesting is that while they were not particularly civil with one another, they were at the\u00a0same time prepared to compromise. And those who think that the Constitution is somehow the\u00a0revealed word of reason do not understand the tremendous debates that took place in 1787 and that\u00a0led to its adoption.<\/p>\n

“There were tremendous debates, raucous debates. And in every case they ended in compromise.”<\/p>\n