It is rare indeed for a nation to have at its summit a group so curiously gifted as Washington and Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Adams. And what was particularly providential was the way in which their strengths and weaknesses compensated each other, so that the group as a whole was infinitely more formidable than the sum of its parts. They were the Enlightenment made flesh.
- Paul Johnson
2 comments:
The bigger question for me is were they actually that gifted (and I have no evidence to prove that they were not) or did they 'elevate' their gifts to meet the monumental task they had in front of them? What they were attempting to do - resist a global superpower, start a new nation, break away from a known world (metaphorically) - was gigantic, scary and new. It would require them to be their best, to look past each other's faults, and work together to close the gaps.
I'm sure that the same argument can be made for any massive human endeavor. Great challenge - clear, focused and necessary - brings out the best in all of us.
Brian,
It reminds me of Benjamin Franklin's line to the effect that "We must all hang together or we will all hang separately."
Michael
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