The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding

BOOK REVIEW: The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding by Joseph J. Ellis  (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2025) $31.00 hardcover.

The latest book by Founding Brothers author Joseph J. Ellis brings the reader back to the meaning of what he has referred to as “The Cause,” that is, the ideals of freedom and equality in the American Revolution. But instead of providing a feel-good, inspirational story of confidence and American exceptionalism. Ellis points out the glaring failures of The Cause. The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding takes the reader on a historical tour, but “Our tour will focus on the downside of the American founding. While we will notice the triumphs in passing, our tour will focus on two unquestionable horrific tragedies the founders oversaw: the failure to end slavery, and the failure to avoid Indian removal.” (page ix) This failure is very much part of the background setting of the current political climate.

“Part I: Overviews” covers the beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade and the mistakes people have made in how they view American history, in particular the American founding. The founding was a time of chance, improvisation and contingency. The founders themselves were not civic deities. They were very human, with all the inconsistencies and foibles that are endemic to human behavior. Democracy was not at all to be trusted, which is a fact that many learning about American history find hard to accept. Ellis establishes these ideas to make it easier to understand how the failures later occurred.

“Part II: Contexts” centers in on the events during the Imperial Crisis up through the Washington administration in 1790. In Chapter 3, “The Contradiction,” the issue of slavery comes before the Continental Congress because colonists were debating boycotting British imports, and slaves were an import. Southern colonies objected, realizing that they had serious political power in their threats of breaking up the fragile union. John Adams stressed the fact that slavery itself was a violation of The Cause. Still, the slavery clause Jefferson put into his draft of the Declaration of Independence was removed to appease the southern states, who then argued over whether slaves were considered property or people for the purposes of taxation and later, representation. Jefferson’s Declaration was able to present the famous idea of all men being created equal, becoming the most important words in the American literary cannon.

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Chapter 4, “Unpainted Pictures,” makes it clear that the American Revolution was fought between two fully integrated biracial armies. Lord Dunmore of Virginia proclaimed early in the war that any enslaved people who left their masters for British lines and were willing to serve as soldiers would be free. Some considered this single action by the British as the true unifier of the American colonies, who feared a “domino” effect of thousands of enslaved running away. General George Washington, meanwhile, was confronted with an integrated army when he took control in Massachusetts. His need for men would outweigh his reluctance to use Black soldiers. When the British changed their war strategy for focus their strength on the South, John Laurens and Alexander Hamiliton unsuccessfully pushed a program to arm southern slaves for the Continental Army. Maintaining the institution was much more important to southerners then who their political allegiance went to. At the end of the war, after the surrender at Yorktown, British officers refused to return runaway slaves and Black soldiers to their masters, including Washington. Washington, by that point, had started to change his view towards Black slavery.

The debates at the Constitutional Convention and the battles over ratification were the subject so Chapter 5, “The Ghost at the Banquet.” Although some delegates strenuously objected to slavery and the slave trade, the Constitution was passed because of the famous compromises: the three-fifths clause, the Electoral College, and the fugitive slave clause (passed unanimously at the very end of the Convention). The nails on the coffin of Abolition were nailed shut in Chapter 6, “The Epilogue,” with the refusal of the new government to accept anti-slavery petitions. The whole slavery issue was passed on to future generations.

Indian issues were at the center of Chapter 7, “The Treaty.” Three people controlled Indian policy in 1790: Washington, Jefferson, and Henry Knox. Secretary of War Knox did the most to try to create a truly honorable policy towards the Native Americans, who Knox and Washington believed to be members of sovereign nations having rights that were to be respected by the United States. Unfortunately, there had been no Indian delegates invited to the Paris peace negotiations in 1783, so the British “gave” the new United States land that was in fact controlled by sovereign nations already (begging the question “Can a republic also be an empire?”). The three American leaders were up against the “Vergennes” of native diplomacy, the Creek leader Alexander McGillivray. The resulting peace treaty (Treaty of New York, 1790) ended up failing because of the increasing numbers of settlers moving towards the west, which became a tidal wave over the years.

The book finishes with two short chapters that look at the different fates of two American icons. First, in “Regrets at Mount Vernon,” George Washington wrestled with how to dispense with his property in his will. He did end up freeing his slaves when he died. Jefferson, in “Memories at Monticello,” met with this French friend Lafayette once more. Lafayette, ever the optimist, wanted to push for some end to slavery with Jefferson, who was unable to imagine his world without it. Lafayette was changed by The Cause, whereas Jefferson was not.

Ellis has delivered a jarring examination of The Cause with The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding. The coming Civil War in the 1860s would be the only way to return the United States to the visions and ideas that the American Revolution tried to instill. One of the biggest takeaways for this reviewer was the efforts that Knox and Philip Schuyler made on behalf of the Native Americans. So sad to know that none of them would work out.

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