Founding Fathers on gov't

A recent letter called "America's founding revisited" took some liberties with historical fact. In 1787, the 55 founding fathers met in Philadelphia and after 89 days of heated debate and unparalleled compromise emerged with one of the most important documents in the history of mankind. James Madison's meticulous notes of the proceedings reveal the purpose of the convention was to form a strong central government, because under the Articles of Confederation, the states had demonstrated an incompetence to govern. The question before the delegates wasn't whether to create a strong central government, but how.

The delegates were not there to discuss religion. They were there to discuss civil government. In fact, a search of the notes reveals religion was never a topic. These men used as their guide the experiences of great civilizations that had experimented with democratic and republican forms of government.

Modern pundits peddle their philosophy as the Holy Grail or lodestone of philosophies by projecting it as being that of the founding fathers. Modern Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, libertarians, Christians and the nonreligious are bent on taking ownership of our founding fathers, twisting their thoughts and writings to fit their particular philosophies, and rewriting colonial history.

Mark Twain said, "It's not what you don't know that kills you, it's what you know for sure that ain't true." The same can be said of claims made about our founding fathers by those seeking to reinvent them.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson