Since many people in this subreddit have already asked “Who was the “best” founding father?” or “Who is your favorite founding father?”, I would now like to ask the opposite question. In your opinion, who was the “worst” Founding Father? Why do you think he was the worst? Post your answers in the comments below.
8 comments
Burr and Arnold. Different circumstances but still the whole treason thing for them both.
Aaron Burr was a narcissistic political opportunist who (probably) didn’t have especially strong beliefs in the founding itself and only went along with it to advance himself. He schemed and maneuvered through his whole career, demonstrating little loyalty to…anyone, really.
He (probably) wanted to steal land from the Louisiana Purchase to found his own empire because he felt his genius was insufficiently rewarded/respected and that justified abandoning and opposing it.
Dueling was considered barbaric at the time, but even then you weren’t supposed to use deadly force. So the whole killing Alexander Hamilton thing is a black mark regardless of your views on central banking and even if you hate the musical.
I’ll go with Aaron Burr.
Not just for murdering Hamilton, but his attempt to setup another country and soliciting British help to do so.
It’s a group, not an individual, but the Sons of Liberty were kind of a terrorist organization. They just get lionized because they were on “our” side.
Whoever those two New Jersey delegation members were who chose to call in sick the day Thomas Jefferson’s 1784 Land Ordinance came up for a vote. Jefferson’s ordinance would have ended slavery in all of the territory ceded from Britain at the end of the Revolution by the year 1800, including the areas we now call Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Each state had one vote, and since the New Jersey delegation was out sick that day their state didn’t get a vote, causing the entire measure to fail by one vote. Jefferson spent the rest of his life ruing that outcome. It would have been one of the biggest legislative blows against slavery in the entire ante-bellum period.
Way to go New Jersey <slow clap>
Does Benedict Arnold count? Because if so, high treason probably makes him the winner.
Button Gwinnet
Hamilton, started a central bank.