Interest in the Founding Fathers as well as the admiration for them and their accomplishments has risen and fallen over time. The term Founding Fathers refers primarily to a group of the most prominent members of the founding era, which consists of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Without an important anniversary in sight, the Founders found their way back into the spotlight at the turn of the twenty-first century. This trend has been coined „Founders Chic“ by supporters and „Cult of the Founding Fathers“ by critics.1 Famous examples are David McCullough's John Adams (2002) that was adapted into an award-winning miniseries or Ron Chernow’s Hamilton (2004) that inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda to write his hit musical Hamilton. Dennis C. Rasmussen’s Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders is not necessarily part of the still ongoing Founders Chic trend per se, as it portrays how the Founding Fathers were overwhelmingly disillusioned with the future of the United States at the time of their deaths. Rasmussen was inspired by biographies of the Founders that never seemed to end on a happy or positive note. Thus, he set out to write a book about the deeply felt anxiety and disappointment about the American government and its society of the arguably four most prominent founders: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. His account further includes James Madison who was the only prominent founder with a positive outlook regarding the success of the American experiment and its republican democracy, while omitting Benjamin Franklin from his analysis due to Franklin’s passing in 1790 when the Constitution had barely been effective.

Political theorist Dennis C. Rasmussen accurately mentions how most research about the leading founders’ outlooks has focused on the time period from 1775 to 1791, however, the founders’ views continued to be decisively shaped over the succeeding decades that followed. The first years of the nation were turbulent and gave reasons to worry about a successful future as no republic of the size of the United States had lasted for long. Benjamin Franklin had therefore correctly pointed out the uncertainty of this time in his famous quote from the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when he made remarks about George Washington’s chair, which appeared to have a painting of a rising sun on his back: „often in the course of the Session, and the vicisitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, [have I] looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting“.2 Rasmussen borrows Franklin’s statement for the title of his book as he describes in artful prose how the most prominent founders dealt with the rising and setting sun of the American experiment. The nicely structured book dedicates one chapter including three subchapters each to Washington (p. 17–58), Hamilton (p. 61–100), Adams (p. 103–146), and Jefferson (p. 149–194) and further features two final chapters on the „other founders“ (p. 197–201) and Madison (p. 205–224). He quotes directly from a variety of primary sources portraying on the one hand each founder individually and on the other hand combining the fears of the Founders to show their consensus on certain issues, e.g. Washington and Adams both feared the party system, while Hamilton and Adams both dreaded populism (p. 103). According to Rasmussen, the four prominent founders also had distinctive different causes for their anxieties towards the American government. George Washington was deeply troubled by the partisanship that broke out during his presidency. The bitter rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson led to the formation of political parties which Washington deemed perilous as he feared that the „young republic would be torn apart by factionalism“ (p. 34). Hamilton feared that the federal government was simply too weak as he always believed in a vigorous central government. His disappointment derived from the Constitutional Convention and the compromise of the agreed-upon constitution. Before his death, he had also become disillusioned with the „real Disease, which [was] DEMOCRACY“ (p.100). Adams was always critical of the American government as well as its society. He heavily criticized his fellow citizens’ lack of virtue. In a letter to Jefferson in 1815, he feared that „there will be greater difficulties to preserve our Union, than You and I, our Fathers Brothers Friends Disciples and Sons have had to form it“ (p. 141). Jefferson on the other hand was for most of his life very optimistic about the American experiment and its citizens. He finally became very anxious about disunion caused by sectional divisions through the spread of slavery. Rasmussen credits the Missouri crisis of 1819–21 as „Jefferson’s eventual despair over the fate of the American republic“ (p. 169). Only Madison, the self-composed „Father of the Constitution“ remained positive about their endeavor. The author notes that he „simply expected less from politics“ (p. 221) and had thus a more sanguine view of what was actually achievable within the American governmental system.

In his well-researched and accessible study, Rasmussen devotes only one short chapter to other important disillusioned founders that include Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Patrick Henry, John Jay, John Marshall, George Mason, James Monroe, Gouverneur Morris, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Rush. They all had different reasons for their disillusionment, e.g. Benjamin Rush feared for the „bewhiskied and a bedollared nation“ (p. 198), whereas John Jay lamented about corruption (p. 199) and Chief Justice John Marshall doubted that „miracles“ can continue to uphold the nation (p. 200). This chapter would have deserved more than four and half pages, as the other somewhat lesser-known founders have each played crucial roles in the development of the American nation.

Rasmussen’s book also offered me some new insights and interesting facts. Donald Trump was for instance not the only president who left the White House in a hurry. John Adams left Washington, DC before dawn on Jefferson’s inauguration (p. 131). However, Rasmussen’s main argument is not completely novel, as many other historians before him have talked about or analyzed the disillusionment of the Founding Fathers, only in a less systematic approach, e.g. Pauline Maier, Gordon S. Wood or most recently Anne Applebaum who used the Founding Fathers’ anxieties to put our „Twilight of Democracy“ into perspective.3 His main argument is nevertheless cohesive and his approach of solely focusing on the disillusionment is unique. Rasmussen is also right in his conclusion that the founders’ concerns were too extreme. The four most prominent of them feared the dissolution of the United States within decades or years of their own passing. Rasmussen has also shown how many of the current political ills were already expressed by the Founders. Fears of a Setting Sun helps in understanding some of the roots of our contemporary political struggle and the fear of the decay of American democracy. Rasmussen himself concludes that the sun that Benjamin Franklin observed „was neither simply rising nor simply setting, but rather beckoning the nation onward toward the horizon, on a never-ending quest to perpetuate and improve the founders’ creation“ (p. 232).

Notes:
1 Jeffrey L. Pasley / Andrew W. Robertson / David Waldstreicher (eds.), Beyond the Founders. New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic, Chapel Hill 2009.
2 Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Madison Debates. September 17. Tuesday September 17, 1787, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_917.asp (20.06.2021).
3 Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy. The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends, London 2020.