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What would Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and James Madison think about the myriad of divisive issues facing the United States today? Historians present the Founding Fathers’ views respectively on racism, economic inequality, American imperialism, and the doctrine of original intent. Discover how the nation’s founding ideals remain relevant today.

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Follow Alexander Hamilton’s best friend, Gouverneur Morris, to Paris on the eve of the French Revolution where a cast of Americans including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin bore witness to the rumblings of democratic furor.

Richard Brookhiser is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and the author of Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution. Dale Gregory (moderator) is Vice President for Public Programs at the New-York Historical Society.

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“The fate of America was suspended by a hair,” declared Gouverneur Morris, the draftsman of the Constitution, about the fateful summer of 1787, when he joined the young nation’s most prominent leaders—George Washington, whom he admired; Benjamin Franklin, whom he teased; and Alexander Hamilton, his dear friend—in Philadelphia. Join us as we follow Morris to the famed Constitutional Convention and discover how the decisive assembly forever altered the course of American history.

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In the winter of 1777, the Continental Congress military committee gave Gouverneur Morris an assignment: Visit General Washington at Valley Forge and report on the condition of the army. Lodged at headquarters with Washington, Hamilton, and Lafayette, Morris developed a plan to bring in supplies and alleviate the “naked, starving condition, out of health, out of spirits.”