At Law & Liberty, Glenn A. Moots (Northwood University – Political Science and Philosophy): Rediscovering an Extraordinary Founder (reviewing Andrew Farmer’s Ordinary Greatness: A Life of Elias Boudinot (American Bible Society, 2022)). From the introduction:
[Elias] Boudinot may be the greatest Founder that most Americans have never heard of. [Andrew] Farmer writes, “Boudinot wasn’t just a witness to history. He helped make it.” Indeed he did, and surely in ways Boudinot himself could not have predicted. He was initially a practicing attorney in New Jersey and supporter of the Patriot cause, but he soon became a colonel in the Continental Army under George Washington’s direction, where he handled the demoralizing and difficult plight of American prisoners of war. He helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris. Boudinot became a member of the Continental and Confederation Congresses (including serving as president). After ratification of the Constitution, Boudinot served in the new nation’s First (and Second and Third) Congress. He was the first Director of the US Mint. Like Washington, he repeatedly denied himself retirement or private ambition so that he could answer his nation’s call.
Boudinot was a model citizen in other ways as well. He was instrumental in founding the American Bible Society, served as a trustee of Princeton, consistently opposed slavery, and defended the rights of American Indians. Boudinot and his wife Hannah were also philanthropic to a fault, contributing to causes patriotic, charitable, and evangelistic at great cost to their personal fortune. The homes he built with his wife housed needy youths (including Alexander Hamilton) and men and women waiting on judges to free them from slavery. (Unlike many Founders, even many who opposed slavery, Boudinot never owned slaves.)
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The point of Farmer’s book is not to supply a curriculum vitae, however, but to situate Boudinot in a milieu that includes, most notably, Benjamin Franklin (his next-door neighbor as a child), George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and influential ministers like George Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent.
Central to Farmer’s narrative is Boudinot’s convictions and character. His deep personal faith descended from French Huguenots and was nurtured by his coming of age during the Great Awakening. Boudinot devoted himself to Presbyterian churches and Princeton Seminary (which he founded). He is buried in the cemetery of the Episcopal church where he finally retired, considering it the best of his local alternatives. As a faithful Protestant, however, Boudinot wasn’t interested merely in “private, inward spirituality” but also in the consequence of piety for public affairs and politics in the new nation. Boudinot believed that America’s fortunes would be tied to its faithfulness, including not just the fate of the Federalist Party (against supposedly godless Jeffersonians) but the desire of Americans for brotherhood more generally. In a 1793 oration, presciently seeing America’s future, he wrote, “All men, however different with regard to nation or color, have an essential interest in each other’s welfare.” …
And here is the book description from the publisher:
Learn how the founder of American Bible Society drew on the Bible to navigate the spiritual, intellectual, moral, and political challenges of the American Founding.
You won’t find this American Founder on a coin or a Broadway musical. But Elias Boudinot (1740–1821) left an enduring mark on history. Hamilton’s mentor. Washington’s friend. President of the Continental Congress, Revolutionary War veteran, legislator, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and abolitionist. Boudinot shaped governments, schools, churches, and charities. Now, in the first biography dedicated to his life in 50 years, Ordinary Greatness invites readers to discover the compelling story of this Founder’s dedication to faith and liberty amid volatile times.
Set in times of division and change not unlike our own, Ordinary Greatness guides readers from the Great Awakening to the early Republic. It explores Boudinot’s life alongside four of his close connections: George Whitefield, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton. It shows how Boudinot’s faith shaped his public and private roles and his convictions on government, slavery, and missions. And it offers a new generation fresh inspiration and courage to face our own challenges.
Posted at 6:24 AM