250 Years and Counting: What Would the Founders Think of America Today?

We look at modern America and hear from the Founders about what they would think of America 250 years after the new nation was born.  

Transcript

250 Years and Counting: What Would the Founders Think of America Today?  

June 2026

The title of this episode is a fraught question in many ways.  In David McCullough’s John Adams, the historian noted that when Adams and Thomas Jefferson, after decades of bitter acrimony, reconciled, they began writing letters to each other, sort of.  They truly were writing for a greater audience, not just contemporaries but posterity.  Every public person projects an image they wish to convey, rather than the reality that might be.  It is difficult to say with certainty what the Founders believed, so projecting them has its issues.  And in some cases, as with Martha Washington’s destruction of many of her husband’s letters, we have an incomplete picture.  

Yet given the literary body we do have from them, we can certainly make some safe conclusions about how they would understand their thoughts about today’s America.  

The second part is interpretation.  The tragic death of Charlie Kirk has unleashed a fusillade of right-wing influencers, each making their claim to his legacy, to leverage his popularity to enhance their own.  If I see one more “Charlie would have wanted this” supposition, I will go screaming into the night like some unhinged banshee.  To say that Washington would have liked this or that Madison would have liked that contains certain pitfalls.  Therefore, we will try to adhere to their actual writings as closely as possible.  

Some things, though, are, to use Jefferson’s own words, self-evident.  The Founders would have been intensely gratified that we got to 250 years.  When asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had produced, Benjamin Franklin famously replied, “A republic, if you can keep it,” showing a bit of skepticism about the prospects of the new nation.  Jefferson, writing to Madison, noted of the Constitution, “This could preserve that being till it ceased to be itself, & no longer. Every Constitution then, & every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, & not of right.” On the issue of slavery, he would be proven correct in terms of use of force to end it. Still, it was over 70 years later, and a key aspect of the Civil War was the preservation of the Constitution, not the adoption of a new one.  

America has been the economic leader of the world since the 1870s, a great power since 1918, a superpower since 1945, and the sole one of those categorizations since 1989.  It is hard for an American today to understand just how dicey things looked in the period immediately after the Revolutionary War, from 1783 to 1787, and even after the Ratification of the Constitution, from 1787 through 1815.  I set that date as the end of the War of 1812.  Though the war itself was a draw, the new nation showed it could go toe to toe with a great power, preserve its government through the war, and set the stage for the Monroe Doctrine eight years later.  

To tell a prominent American in 1796, in the midst of a horrifying election pitting two Revolutionaries (and former friends) Adams and Jefferson against each other, could have split the nation; it must have come as a relief.  To tell them the nation would last another 226 years would have been astonishing.  The same goes for, let’s say, a Bostonian in June of 1863 after the crushing Northern losses at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.  That the nation would be reunited in two years and go on for another 163 years would be gratifying.  And not just the longevity, but the sheer size.

In 1776, the country consisted of thirteen colonies stretched along the Atlantic coast. The population was roughly 2.5 million people. Today, the nation spans an entire continent, includes fifty states, and is home to more than 340 million people. The American economy is the largest in the world, and the nation’s scientific, military, and cultural influence extends to nearly every corner of the globe.

The Founders often questioned whether a republic could govern such a vast territory. Many European thinkers believed republics only worked in small city-states. George Mason, one of the anti-Federalists, stated, “Is it to be supposed that one National Government will suit so extensive a country, embracing so many climates, and containing inhabitants so very different in manners, habits, and customs? It is ascertained by history, that there never was a government, over a very extensive country, without destroying the liberties of the people.”  

Ironically, modern America has proven that a constitutional republic can govern an enormous and diverse population—something many Founders in addition to Mason would have found difficult to imagine. And not just survived, but outlived several events that have ended other states, including a major Civil War, at least five economic depressions, two world wars, political scandals, social upheavals, and even terrorist attacks. 

So they would have reveled in the longevity of their creation, but they would have been hard-pressed to recognize what their nation had become in terms of technology.  Innovations emanating from the Industrial Revolution would have seemed to the founders like science fiction.  They lived in an age of muskets, sailing ships, handwritten correspondence, and small agricultural communities. If they were suddenly transported into the twenty-first century, they would be astonished by technological progress, the immense size and wealth of the United States, and the country’s global influence. At the same time, they would likely recognize many familiar political debates. Questions concerning the balance of power, the role of government, individual liberty, national unity, and foreign affairs remain at the center of American political life. 

No aspect of modern life would have surprised them more than transportation.  The Founders relied on horses for travel, communication, and even warfare. Letters often required weeks to arrive. Today, airplanes cross oceans in hours. Automobiles allow nearly every citizen to travel long distances with ease. And horses are now largely recreational creatures.  

Computers, smartphones, satellites, and the internet would appear almost magical.

Medical advances would be equally remarkable.

Diseases that routinely killed children in the eighteenth century are now preventable through vaccines. Modern surgery, antibiotics, organ transplants, and advanced imaging technologies would seem miraculous.

Given Franklin’s role in harnessing electricity, our ubiquitous use alone would likely rank among humanity’s greatest achievements in their eyes.

Approval of Religious Freedom

Many Founders strongly supported religious liberty.  John Adams wrote, “Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man’s nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God.” Jefferson and Madison, especially, believed that government should neither establish nor prohibit religion.  There are heritage Americans who centralize the role of Christianity as a state religion.  As early as 1785, Madison made a critical argument against such an establishment: “It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties....Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?”

Modern America contains thousands of religious denominations alongside citizens who practice Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and countless other faiths—or none at all.  While individual Founders differed in religion, many would probably see this religious diversity as proof that liberty of conscience can coexist with civil society.

Concern About the Size of Government

Perhaps the greatest shock for the Founders would be the size and scope of the federal government. The federal government envisioned by the Founders was relatively small. Just consider the executive and initially four departments: State, Treasury, War and the Attorney General.  There was a bureau for native Americans and a post office and not much else.  Today there are 15 distinct cabinet post in addition to the infrastructure running the White House.  The annual spend was $11 million representing 2% of GDP.  There were 3,900 employees with over 80% of these either in post offices or customs offices.  Today there are 2.1 million civilian employees at the federal level.  Spend is $7 trillion which is 23% of GDP.     

The federal government regulates: banking, healthcare, environmental protection, labor standards, aviation, communications, consumer products, food safety, education funding, scientific research, and, most expensively of all, retirement programs. Some Founders, especially Jefferson, would likely believe the federal government exercises powers far beyond those originally intended. “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

Hamilton, however, who favored energetic national authority, might be less surprised, but even he had his reservations: “If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare… The powers of Congress would subvert the very foundation, the very nature of the limited government established by the people of America.” There is little doubt the overall scale of today’s federal bureaucracy would likely confound nearly all of them.

Political Polarization and Parties 

The Founders understood political disagreement.  They argued fiercely among themselves. Yet many expressed concern about excessive factionalism. Madison famously argued that factions were inevitable but should be controlled through constitutional institutions rather than eliminated.  Today’s intense political polarization would worry many Founders. 

Washington wrote, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

Modern politics would likely reinforce many of his fears.

Madison, using the term faction, states, “AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice.”

Constant partisan conflict, declining trust in institutions, and increasingly hostile political rhetoric might appear dangerous to republican government.  And yet our political parties today are also shadows of themselves.  The Republicans have become the handmaidens of Donald Trump.  The Democrats are trying to make accommodations with out-and-out socialists.  Truly powerful parties would curb their fringe movements, but today’s versions give in to them, which brings us to the next thing that would alarm the Founders: extremism.  

James Madison dedicated Federalist 39 to defining “republican form” of government as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people.” One of the aspects, though, of a founder’s extremism was not the fringe element but the concern that the people themselves would resort to mob rule: “The people, sir, are a great beast,” exclaimed Hamilton, and Madison added, “Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”  As much as the desire for Trump for greater presidential power, or the socialism now part of the Democrats, the leftist assaults on the Electoral College would be alarming.  “It was equally desirable, that the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice. A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass, will be most likely to possess the information and discernment requisite to such complicated investigations,” noted Hamilton in Federalist 68.  

Expansion of Democracy

And on the subject of the Electoral College, the Founders themselves held differing views about democracy.   Most supported representative government rather than direct democracy. But there were exceptions.  James Wilson of Pennsylvania wanted a direct election of the President-a bone of contention today, especially among Democrats who, in two of the last eight presidential elections have won the popular vote but lost in the electoral college.  It should be noted that the voters in the eighteenth century were generally limited to white male property owners but that changed over the course of the Republic’s history.

First, state-by-state voting rules gradually granted the vote to those who did not own property.  Then both the 15th Amendment (granting African American men the vote) and the 19th Amendment (granting all women the vote) were enacted.  Even youth gained additional rights with the 26th Amendment, which reduced the voting age to 18.  The Founders’ reactions would vary. Some might enthusiastically embrace the broader participation.

Others might question whether such large-scale democracy could function effectively.

Regardless, they would recognize that constitutional amendments—not revolution—produced many of these changes.  That adherence to constitutional procedures would likely impress them.

Freedom of Speech in the Digital Age

The Founders strongly defended freedom of expression.  Benjamin Franklin stated, “Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech.”

Yet they could never have imagined social media, twenty-four-hour news cycles, or instant communication reaching billions of people. They might admire the ability of ordinary citizens to express opinions freely. At the same time, they would probably worry about misinformation, political manipulation, and the speed with which rumors spread. Franklin, himself a printer and publisher, would undoubtedly be fascinated by the evolution of mass communication.

Surprisingly, they were not unfamiliar with polarization and negative politics.  We think we live in a time of ugly politics, but two founders pitted against each other in 1800 represented one of the most acrimonious campaigns in American history.  The Federalist candidates were cast as closet monarchists and elitists. Adams was caricatured as a “hypocrite,” a fool who lacked masculinity, and even mocked for his portly physique (dubbed “His Rotundity.” One feature even suggested he was not all man, a hermaphrodite, a pretty big slur in 18th-century America.  Jefferson was vilified as a dangerous radical who would plunge the United States into the bloody chaos of the French Revolution. Federalists painted him as a cowardly atheist who would destroy churches and confiscate private property.  One portrayal had children impaled on pikes, suggesting that when the French Revolution came to America, infanticide would result.  

It makes the accusations regarding our 21st century elections look tame by comparison

National Debt

Many Founders believed excessive public debt endangered liberty.  Hamilton supported responsible borrowing to establish national credit. Jefferson worried debt could burden future generations, famously referring to borrowing money to be paid by posterity as “swindling futurity on a large scale.” Personally, I could not agree more.  

Modern America’s national debt—measured in the tens of trillions of dollars—would almost certainly become a major topic of discussion among them. They would likely debate whether such debt strengthens or weakens the Republic.

Individual Liberty

Perhaps above all else, the Founders would ask whether Americans remain committed to liberty.  They believed freedom required more than elections. It depended on issues such as the rule of law, independent courts, separation of powers, free elections, civil liberties, an informed citizenry, and something in far shorter supply today: civic virtue. 

They might conclude that these principles remain remarkably durable while also warning that they require constant maintenance.

The Civil War

No event after their deaths would affect them more deeply than the American Civil War.  Many Founders recognized that slavery contradicted the ideals of liberty while simultaneously compromising with it to preserve the Union.  Gouverneur Morris called slavery a nefarious institution, and it was, “The curse of heaven on the States where it prevailed.” George Washington freed his slaves on his death, which is testimony to his true feelings.  No less than Jefferson, he showed concern for the morality of the practice by noting “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.” Yet it was also Jefferson who captured the Founders’ dilemma regarding slavery. He famously described slavery in 1820 as holding “a wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go”. He argued that a sudden emancipation would cause societal collapse and racial warfare, weighing the ideals of justice against the perceived necessity of self-preservation.  No less than six states- Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland all had slaves.  And it should be noted that underlying the institution itself was a racist undercurrent among many of the Founders. For Morris, John Adams, or Franklin, another anti-slavery advocate, to try to eliminate the institution, given all of the challenges with even forming a nation with it, was a bridge too far.  Therefore, for many, the eventual freedom of the slaves was seen as the right act.  What would have appalled them was the Civil War itself and the death of over half a million men.  The enormous human cost would horrify them.  At the same time, many would likely conclude that preserving the Union ultimately fulfilled the constitutional experiment they had begun.

America’s Role in the World

The Founders generally preferred avoiding permanent foreign alliances. Today, the United States maintains military alliances across Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, with forces stationed around the globe. Washington would not have approved, “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world and by so doing to keep the United States out of the broils and wars in which the nations of Europe are involved, from causes essentially foreign to our concerns, or by which they are liable to be affected.”

It was not as if the colonies were not part of a global trading system.  Many of the goods produced in the South, for example, were part of a large export economy.  But there was the British government to manage much of the protection of this trade.  And for all the talk about isolationism, it was in the 1800s, just 12 years after the Constitution, that American power in the form of the US Navy was projected all the way to the coast of North Africa.  

They would not have liked NATO or having bases abroad, but they would have understood their need.  

Many historians would argue, with some justification, that the Founders would have abhorred our politics and our politicians. I am not so certain.  These were men who knew Benedict Arnold and even served with him.  Aaron Burr was Vice President WHEN he murdered Hamilton.  I have described the 1796 election as fairly appalling.  The 1800 version was not much better.  And a bunch owned other men as chattel slaves.  The Founders were not some angelic figures sent down from heaven to teach us moral virtues though there is much in that department for us to learn.  They were men with petty needs and grievances and men who made mistakes (ask the native Americans about the early Republic).  Yet they were also brilliant, having the depth of vision to create first an ideological creed to govern our minds, and the most brilliant governmental system ever conceived to govern our bodies, the Constitution.  And the third aspect of their genius was an adoption of capitalism to govern our commerce.  They had faults, but we owe them our liberty and prosperity, and if they were alive today, they should be incredibly proud of the nation and the history they have wrought.