LA Times · Sep 20, 2015
The Founding Fathers: Demigods or scoundrels?
Junius Brutus Stearns' "George Washington Addressing the Constitutional Convention," which was painted in 1856.For much of American history the founding generation, often mythologized and capitalized as the Founding Fathers, served as the gold standard against which we measured the debased currency that came after them. Ralph Waldo Emerson put this semi-sacred tradition succinctly: "They saw God face to face; we can only see Him second-hand."
Later in the 19th century Henry Adams made the same point more mischievously, observing that any chronological list of American presidents must lead to the conclusion that Darwin got it exactly backward.