The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789

Without the leadership of George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, the newly independent United States would have disintegrated. Ellis (emeritus, history, Mt. Holyoke Coll.; Founding Brothers) convincingly argues that this quartet of nationalists spearheaded a second, more profound follow-up revolution within six years of the Revolutionary War. The first was to win independence from a tyrannical, monarchial overlord. The second revolution expanded the first by creating a new nation-state from a confederation of 13 sovereignties. This quartet of political elites from Virginia and New York orchestrated the dramatic transformation of the postwar constitution from a confederation of sovereign states to a nation-sized republic, the largest ever attempted in history. Each man performed a role for which he was naturally suited in diagnosing the systemic flaws of the Articles of Confederation; maneuvering through the political process to assemble the Convention of 1787–88; steering the agenda toward creating a national government; influencing, with limited success, the outcomes of state ratifying conventions; and ensuring state compliance with a promised Bill of Rights.