Faculty Spotlight - November 2, 2023
College of Arts & Sciences: Faculty Spotlight Series
Dr. Timothy Hemmis
Department: Humanities, Associate Professor of History
Presentation: Thursday, November 2, 2023, 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Talk by Dr. Timothy Hemmis
Location: Founders Hall, Bernie Beck Lecture Hall (Doors open at 4:15 p.m.)
All are welcome to attend. Appetizers and light refreshments will be served!
“’The Demon of Conspiracy and Rebellion’: The Burr Conspiracies of 1806-1807”
Dr. Hemmis’s talk will examine the darker aspects of the Founding Fathers’ era, shedding lights on unscrupulous figures within the Founding generation, including well-known figures like Aaron Burr, who were involved in conspiracies to divide the nation and potentially start a civil war in 1807, revealing the political vulnerabilities of the American republic at the time.
Abstract:
Popular Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton have become American saints, men revered for their wisdom and self-sacrificing service to the nation. However, within the Founding generation lurked many unscrupulous figures—men who violated the era’s expectation of public virtue and advanced their own interests at the expense of others. They were traitors, opportunists, con-artists, and spies. Some of the men were well-known like Aaron Burr. In 1807, the Burr Conspiracies and consequential trial laid bare the political frailties of the American republic. Despite Burr’s acquittal, there was substantial evidence that he and his associates plotted and conspired to divide the nation, possibly even to start a civil war that could have ruined the United States of America in 1807.
The Founding Fathers are often revered as American saints; here are the stories of those Founders who were schemers and scoundrels, vying for their own interests ahead of the nation’s.
A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers, and Adventurers Who Created a New American Nation
Edited by David Head and Timothy C. Hemmis.
An edited collection of essays which examine the life of a scoundrel.
We now have a clear-eyed understanding of Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton; even so, they are often considered American saints, revered for their wisdom and self-sacrificing service to the nation. However, within the Founding Generation lurked many unscrupulous figures—men who violated the era’s expectation of public virtue and advanced their own interests at the expense of others.
They were turncoats and traitors, opportunists and con artists, spies, and foreign intriguers. Some of their names are well known: Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. Others are less notorious now but were no less threatening. There was Charles Lee, the Continental Army general who offered to tell the British how to defeat the Americans, and James Wilkinson, who served fifteen years as a commanding general in the US Army, despite rumors that he spied for Spain and conspired with traitors.
The early years of the republic were full of self-interested individuals, sometimes succeeding in their plots, sometimes failing, but always shaping the young nation. A Republic of Scoundrels seeks to re-examine the Founding Generation and replace the hagiography of the Founding Fathers with something more realistic: a picture that embraces the many facets of our nation’s origins
Dr. Timothy C. Hemmis is an Associate Professor of History specializing in Early American History. His research explores topics such as empire, identity, and war in Revolutionary America, with a current book project on the identity of frontier merchants in Revolutionary America and a forthcoming project on Early American geographers’ role in defining the United States. He teaches a range of Early American History courses and emphasizes critical thinking and the development of students’ historical perspectives in his classes.
