The Founding Conservatives, Lefer - C+

                                               Our, particularly my, tendency to think of the Founders as all on the same page until the contretemps around the Constitutional Convention and Federalist Papers and not really bi-partisan until after Washington, is a function of what the author calls the consensus school of post-WW2 historiography.   They really weren't monolithic in anything, not even their desire for freedom from Great Britain. The author's two primary points are that the conservatives saved the revolution from leftist extremism, and that they firmly planted the seeds of free market capitalism in US soil. The two most prominent conservatives were John Dickinson and Robert Morris. Dickinson was a successful lawyer,  educated in England, and was the author of 'Letters From A Farmer'.   His 'Letters' , which spoke eloquently for American freedom in the early 70's, made him one of the most famous men in the colonies and the  empire.  He penned the First Continental Congress's petition to George III in 1774.  Morris was a  skilled merchant who in 1775 was able to smuggle two-and-a-half tons of gunpowder into America and provide Washington with desperately needed supplies.  His success led to a dominant role as the member of the Continental Congress with significant executive authority over matters of business, finance, procurement, and armaments. Neither was overly enthused, though, about pushing for independence, and Dickinson didn't even sigh the Declaration. Morris did.  Both were members of the financial elite and were uncomfortable with the radicalism of Sam Adams, his cousin John, and the the rebellious Virginians.  Throughout the war years, there was endless political controversy about how to pay for the war, how to manage  scarce resources, whether to provide pensions for the officers, and who and what to tax.  Dickinson drafted the Articles of Confederation. His draft  initially provided for a strong central government, but a more state-centric solution prevailed.  Morris continued his financial and organizational wizardry,  enabling the Continental Army to stay in the field until Yorktown.  Both men were participants in the Constitutional Convention, where Dickinson played a constructive, active role.  Proponents of tradition, structure, the rule of law, and the importance of enterprise, they certainly were deserving of the characterization "conservative revolutionaries".  I found this book enlightening, as I knew very little about the internecine politics of the war years.  But at times, it felt as if the author struggled to fit facts into his thesis and find modern comparisons.