Ellis presents the American Revolution as a precarious, improvised experiment rather than an inevitable triumph.

Aaron Burr challenges Alexander Hamilton to a duel after Hamilton publicly insults Burr's character.

Hamilton and Burr are rowed to a secluded New Jersey location and exchange pistol shots at ten paces.

Hamilton dies from his wound the day after the duel, and Burr's political career is destroyed.

Jefferson hosts a private dinner in New York to broker a deal between Hamilton and Madison.

Madison agrees to allow Hamilton's federal debt assumption plan to pass in exchange for a capital on the Potomac.

Quaker delegations and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society formally present anti-slavery petitions to the House of Representatives.

Congress debates the slavery petitions but resolves only to refer them to committee, avoiding decisive action.

Washington publishes his Farewell Address, urging national unity and warning against foreign entanglements.

Washington voluntarily retires after two presidential terms, setting a landmark precedent for rotation in office.

Adams narrowly defeats Jefferson in the first contested presidential election to succeed Washington.

Adams signs the Alien and Sedition Acts, alienating German and Irish immigrant voters.

Jefferson defeats Adams in the presidential election, marking a decisive shift toward Republican governance.

Jefferson and Adams end their long estrangement and begin exchanging regular letters in retirement.

Jefferson and Adams die on the same day, their passing marking the close of the founding era.

Ellis opens by framing the American Revolution as a fragile, improvised experiment that could easily have collapsed, setting a tone of contingency over inevitability. The most dramatic episode in the book is the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, which ends in Hamilton's death and Burr's permanent political ruin. A flashback to an earlier era shows Jefferson brokering a dinner compromise between Hamilton and Madison, trading the location of the national capital for cooperation on federal debt. Congress's failure to act on the slavery petitions of that same period reveals the republic's deepest contradiction, a silence chosen to preserve a fragile union. Washington's voluntary retirement and the first contested presidential election between Adams and Jefferson mark the critical transition away from founding-generation leadership. The book closes with Jefferson and Adams reconciling in old age through correspondence and dying on the same symbolic day, leaving behind a contested but enduring revolutionary legacy.

The key political events that built the American republic.

The new federal government gathers in New York to assess the assets and liabilities of the republic.

Hamilton presents the Report on Public Credit, proposing the federal government assume all Revolutionary War debts.

Madison blocks Hamilton's assumption plan in Congress, creating legislative deadlock between federal and state governments.

Sixteen possible locations for the permanent federal capital are debated simultaneously in Congress.

The permanent capital is designated as a hundred-square-mile stretch of land along the Potomac River.

Benjamin Franklin's signature on the abolition petition forces Congress to take the slavery debate seriously.

Southern representatives argue during the slavery debate that both the Constitution and the Bible permit slavery.

Several northern states make slavery illegal in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War.

Congress reaches a general consensus to silence the slavery issue in order to preserve the fragile Union.

Washington launches the Proclamation of Neutrality, declaring America an impartial witness to European conflicts.

Washington's last will privately expresses his wish for his own slaves to be freed after his wife's death.

Adams publishes the Discourses on Davila, arguing that stable governments require a single central figure of authority.

Jefferson wins all of New York's electoral votes, securing his presidential victory over Adams.

Jefferson's first term is capped by the Louisiana Purchase, effectively doubling American territory.

Jefferson and Adams exchange letters debating natural versus pseudo-aristocracy and the meaning of social equality.

Ellis opens by showing the new federal government gathered in New York, weighing the considerable assets and serious liabilities of their republican experiment. Hamilton's Report on Public Credit and Madison's fierce opposition in Congress reveal the deep tension between federal power and state sovereignty that will define American politics. The location of the permanent capital becomes a bargaining chip, ultimately placed on the Potomac to balance North-South power and separate politics from finance. Benjamin Franklin's endorsement of the abolition petition forces a genuine congressional debate on slavery, but the South's economic dependence drives Congress toward deliberate silence on the issue. Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality and Adams' controversial Davila essays reveal how differently the founders imagined America's role in the world and the very nature of their government. Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase and his eventual debate with Adams over aristocracy show how competing visions of America played out through the founding generation's careers and correspondence.

The debates and decisions behind the founding era.

Ellis describes the revolutionary generation's politics as a cacophonous, improvised affair full of accusatory rhetoric and personal rivalries.

Hamilton and Burr's long political rivalry over shifting allegiances escalates into a formal challenge to duel.

Burr demands a full public apology from Hamilton through representatives; Hamilton refuses to issue one, making the duel inevitable.

Hamilton's last will and testament reveals he intended to fire his pistol into the air rather than at Burr.

Burr aims at Hamilton's hip rather than his chest, suggesting his intention may have been to wound rather than kill.

Hamilton's funeral becomes an extravaganza of public mourning, with popular opinion branding Burr a cold-blooded murderer.

Jefferson privately orchestrates a campaign to undermine Washington's reputation while publicly maintaining their friendship.

Washington's Farewell Address envisions Americans as a collective unit with a shared destiny oriented toward the West.

Republican critics publicly denounce Washington's Farewell Address as the writing of a sick mind.

Jefferson and Adams grow estranged after Adams' essays argue that a monarchical governing principle is unavoidable in stable government.

Jefferson chooses ideology over personal friendship, leading the Republican opposition directly against Adams' Federalist administration.

Adams reflects to Benjamin Rush that all the founders had been improvising on the edge of catastrophe throughout the Revolution.

Jefferson and Adams debate competing definitions of aristocracy, questioning whether America has truly broken from European class structures.

Jefferson and Adams avoid the topic of slavery in their letters despite both privately recognizing its danger to the Union.

Jefferson and Adams each prepare their private papers for posterity, consciously shaping the historical record of the Revolution.

Ellis frames the American Revolution from the start as a cacophonous, improvised affair rather than a triumphant certainty, setting the tone for the conflicts and contradictions that follow. The first major section dissects the anatomy of the Burr-Hamilton duel: a long political rivalry, a demand for apology, and contradictory accounts of what actually happened when the shots were fired. Hamilton's will and the placement of Burr's shot both suggest that neither man may have truly intended a killing, yet the outcome destroys one life and ruins the other's reputation. Washington's Farewell Address becomes a flashpoint, uncovering Jefferson's hidden campaign against Washington and drawing fierce Republican attacks on any hint of monarchical sentiment. Adams and Jefferson's political estrangement deepens as Jefferson chooses ideology over personal friendship, and their eventual reconciliation in retirement produces letters that avoid slavery while debating aristocracy and revolutionary legacy. The correspondence grows elegiac as both men prepare their papers for posterity, consciously shaping how future generations will understand the founding era.