A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (review)

John Ferling has capped a career of studying the American Revolutionary Era by producing a highly readable narrative and analytical political history distinguished by erudition and insight. It begins with the failed Albany Plan of Union in 1754 and irresistibly carries the reader through almost a half century of the most exciting period of American history, ending with the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson as the third president of the United States on 4 March 1801.

Ferling's goal is to explore the "establishment of the American Union" (p. xi) through political activity and armed revolt, the fashioning of a strong central government highlighted by the enactment of the Constitution, and the struggle between competing visions of America. Throughout he weaves a tale of extraordinarily complex political maneuvering. Although Ferling does not dismiss ideas in political history as unimportant, he stresses his belief "that most people customarily embrace ideas that tally with their personal interests, especially their pecuniary considerations" (p. xii).

In the course of his narrative, Ferling engages a question that has "intrigued" him for years: the "problems of leadership, and especially with those who led, or sought to lead, during the era of the American Revolution" (p. xii). Thus the book is enhanced by extended character sketches and analyses that Ferling expertly blends into the narrative. Sam Adams, so important in the run-up to the break with Britain and the Revolutionary War, deceiving "his colleagues with his charade of moderation" (p. 115), thereafter gradually became less significant as men like his cousin John stepped into the limelight to work their own political magic. The importance of Washington not just as a military commander but as a significant political leader during the tumultuous years preceding the outbreak of war and later is made clear. "He appeared to be a man of action, not contemplation" (p. 81), Ferling writes, but his many years as a Virginia legislator in the House of Burgesses certainly helped prepare him for dealing with the Continental Congress during the war years and political crises following the war. Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, all the iconic figures are here, and Ferling has memorable things to say about them. Yet he does not ignore important men of the second rank who are well known to a few scholars but have little public recognition. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, "raised in opulence" (p. 68), educated in the law at Middle Temple, was a gifted polemicist whose writings helped prepare the way for revolution, but in the congressional debates leading to the Declaration of Independence he argued for reconciliation and passionately against independence, "never embracing" (p. 484) it, even though after the war he served in state government and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The parvenu from New York, Abraham Yates, representing the spectre of pending social revolution, rising from a "humble farm family" (p. 262) to membership in the state legislature before the Revolution, afterwards saw a new world emerging for him and was dramatically changed, becoming an advocate of a democratization of society that horrified men like Alexander Hamilton.

The final quarter of the book deals with the long and fascinating struggle between two titans, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, for the soul of America. Here Ferling presents a calm, judicious, and, in my opinion, accurate assessment of Jefferson's political strengths and weaknesses, without, I am delighted to report, a single mention of Sally Hemmings.

Whether the author meant to convey it or not, there is an important underlying message in this book. In our times many indulge in the mindless sport of politician-bashing, and opportunistic hypocrites run for public office pretending not to be politicians. Yet one of the most significant reasons why the creation of the United States...