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Founding Fathers: Principles Essay

Founding Fathers: How the Founding Fathers of America would respond to the success or the shortcomings of America's progress in keeping with their principles America was a nation founded upon the principles of freedom but also upon compromises. One of the most notable compromises was the negotiation between free and slave states in the framing of the U.S. Constitution. The three-fifths compromise was an attempt by the Founding Fathers to determine how to count slaves in terms of population for the purpose of representation totals in the House of Representatives: "The issue of how to count slaves split the delegates into two groups. The northerners regarded slaves as property who should receive no representation. Southerners demanded that Blacks be counted with whites" ("Three-fifths compromise," 2013). Eventually, the external slave trade was abolished in 1807; this, of course, did not end the practice of slavery within the United States ("1807," 2015). These are two stark examples of the contradiction between American ideals and actual practice: although there are some indications that the Founding Fathers believed or at least hoped that slavery would die a natural death (it did not, given that the invention of the cotton gin made the production of cash...

Because of the security and economic demands of the current international system, the federal government requires a far more powerful infrastructure to defend the nation and attend to the needs of citizens than the Fathers could have dreamed of: provisions such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, the FDA, and FEMA, are only a few examples of government programs and agencies that have been placed under increased scrutiny in recent years. They reflect the needs of a growing population and an increasingly complex social infrastructure that demands greater cushioning against poverty, illness, and natural and manmade threats than existed during the founding of the nation.
It is also important to remember when comparing the reality of today with the Founding Fathers' ideals and actions that there was considerable disagreement between these men at the time of America's birth. At least some of the Founding Fathers, most notably…

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References

1807: Congress abolishes the slave trade (2015). This day in history. History.com. Retrieved from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-abolishes-the-african-slave-trade

Establishing a national bank. (1997). PBS. Retrieved from:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hamilton/peopleevents/e_bank.html

Three-fifths compromise. (2013). African-American registry. Retrieved from:
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/three-fifths-compromise
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