Every year, on the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of our great nation. That nation did not emerge from a vacuum, nor was its founding the result of lengthy, laborious diplomatic discussions. America was forged in a furnace of war, tempered and hammered by men of tremendous strength, character, and will, memorialized as the Founding Fathers. It was men like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, John Hancock, Charles Carroll, Samuel Adams, and other heroes whose blood, sweat, tears, and toil wrought America as a nation and pulled that nation from the flickering fires of the furnace.

In the 250 years since the nation’s founding, however, America has suffered many trials and has been thrust back into the furnace time and time again to be tempered, reshaped, expanded, or beautified. The men who have cast her back into the fires in recent years have not always had the force of will and strength of character that the Founding Fathers evinced. In fact, many have abdicated the masculine virtues so carefully cultivated by generations past, so that they often fail to temper and reforge the nation, instead allowing her to become warped and burned.

This absence of masculine virtue — and even a refusal to acknowledge that particular virtues are masculine — has left many men today confused and leaderless. Fatherlessness, divorce, pornography and drug addictions, transgender ideation and ideology, and elevated crime rates are all evidence of this. With precious few men in the public square today to lead by example and inspire the next generation of young men, it may be worth looking to the examples of the Founding Fathers, as much for their guidance for the next generation as to learn what has been lost over the centuries.

Courage

One of the most essential virtues for men is that of courage. Traditionally, courage has also been called “fortitude,” which empowers men to face suffering and pain for the sake of something greater or more meaningful. Courage is not an absence of fear, but is instead the act of facing one’s fear, enduring suffering or hardship or terror for the sake of something better, whether that be for an ideal or principle or for the protection of a loved one. The virtue of courage is essential for men, who God established as protectors for the vulnerable; in the order of the family, in particular, husbands and fathers are the first line of defense for their wives and children.

While all of the Founding Fathers evinced courage over the course of the American Revolution, perhaps the most dramatic example of this virtue is found in George Washington. As an aide-de-camp to British General Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War, Washington was ambushed by French and American Indian forces outside Fort Duquesne, near modern-day Pittsburgh. When the British line advancing against the French was broken and Braddock was wounded, the young Washington (only 23 years old at the time) did not panic or run away, despite the fact that he was ill and suffering from dysentery. Instead, he did as his commanding officer would have and rallied the troops, organized a rear guard, and provided cover for Braddock’s retreating men. During the episode, Washington had two horses shot out from under him and later found four bullet holes in his coat and hat and even found shrapnel in his hair.

More than 20 years later, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, Washington once again displayed his courage. Following defeats in New York and a grueling retreat across New Jersey, the Continental Army was suffering low morale, crushed spirits, dwindling supplies, and a harsh winter. Many men had lost essentials like boots and coats in the defeated trek across New Jersey, and now had to contend with snow and ice in Pennsylvania at Christmastime. Instead of cowering in the face of defeat at the hands of the greatest military power in the world (at the time), Washington marched onwards, leading more than 2,400 men in a daring expedition across the Delaware River to surprise a British garrison of Hessian mercenaries and cripple the crown’s army.

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. ‘He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,’ is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers,” wrote Christian author G.K. Chesterton.

“This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if we will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.”

In the face of threats to honor, his health, and even his life, Washington persevered. He was not deterred. Instead, he constantly, repeatedly risked his life for the sake of living as an American.

Strength

While all men should strive for physical excellence, strength of character is what allows a man to wield his physical strength well. John Adams evinced such strength at the outbreak of the American Revolution.

The Boston Massacre polarized colonial society, enflaming tensions between American patriots and British loyalists. Undeterred by the controversy, Adams endured the scorn and rebuke of his friends and countrymen — his cousin, for example, Samuel Adams — and took the job of defending the British soldiers accused. Convinced that all men are entitled to fair representation before the law, Adams risked his career and reputation in commitment to his principles. In the end, Adams won the case, with British Captain Thomas Preston and six of the soldiers under his command being acquitted. “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence,” Adams famously said in his closing arguments.

Despite the initial unpopularity which Adams’s defense of the British brought him, his practice prospered in the aftermath as he became known as a man of commitment, principle, and strength. It was that strength of will and character which enabled him to lead the Continental Congress in establishing the Continental Army and appointing Washington to lead it, spurring independence from the crown, securing the assistance of France, and crafting the Constitution.

Prudence

The moral and intellectual exercise of practical wisdom, prudence is among the most useful of the virtues — and, today, among the rarest. Of the Founding Fathers, many displayed exemplary prudence, just as many evinced courage and strength, but James Madison is perhaps the most notable example of prudence.

Known as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison demonstrated tremendous prudence and foresight in drafting and largely structuring the Constitution, particularly the series of “checks and balances” intended to prevent any one singular branch of the government from exerting its power beyond its legal reach and devolving into the very tyranny which American patriots had just fought so bravely against. Relying heavily on political and legal foundations from Western Europe, including the structure of the Dutch Republic, the Swiss Federation, and the Hellenistic-era Achaean League, Madison sought to prevent disunity among the states and prevent the abuse of majority rule with the Constitution, establishing a strong federal government, also balanced to prevent abuse.

It was Madison’s prudence which led to the structure of Congress, balancing the concerns of smaller, less populated states with the interests of larger, more populated states by creating two bicameral chambers, with the size of the lower being apportioned according to the size of each state and the size of the upper being fixed. When state legislators loudly criticized the not-yet-established Constitution, Madison joined with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay to pen the Federalist Papers, a collection of essays clarifying what the Constitution is and the need for it. With both charity and clarity, Madison conducted a lengthy correspondence with Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph, who eventually sided with Madison in favor of ratifying the Constitution. The fourth president’s prudence was evident when he argued at the Virginia ratification convention against the passionate former governor of Virginia Patrick Henry, a staunch anti-Federalist.

That Constitution has guided and shaped America for nearly 250 years (the Constitution was ratified in 1788), thanks in large part to the prudence and practical wisdom of Madison.

Justice

In simple terms, justice is giving to one what he is due, a principle clearly evident in law. Thomas Jefferson was a champion of justice, particularly when rectifying and preventing religious persecution. Many of the earliest settlers of what would eventually become the United States of America fled religious persecution and intolerance. The Mayflower Pilgrims, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, and many others left the Anglican regime of England — and, in many cases, other European nations; German Catholics, for example, especially from Bavaria, fled religious persecution in their home country and settled in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where their Catholic faith was tolerated and even shared by many of their fellow settlers — and sought peace in the New World.

In the mid 1770s, Jefferson worked tirelessly to disestablish the Anglican Church as Virginia’s state religion, drafting the Bill Establishing Religious Freedom, which served as a critical foundation in later years when he assisted Madison in crafting the Constitution. Jefferson recognized that the virtue of justice demanded that no man be persecuted for worshipping God. According to longstanding Christian doctrine, God endowed man with both free will and reason, so that man’s worship of God may be a willing choice to love his Maker. Depriving man of this choice would also deprive God of love freely given, which Jefferson rightly recognized as an injustice — both against God and man.

Today, 250 years later, Jefferson’s commitment to justice and religious liberty is still seen in the nation he played such a crucial role in founding. The rights of Americans of faith, even when threatened, are guaranteed protection and justice under the Constitution, thanks to Jefferson.

Loyalty and Faithfulness

Few qualities are as valued by men in their friendships as those of loyalty and faithfulness. The signers of the Declaration of Independence evinced these noble virtues in putting their names to that foundational document. The final line of the Declaration reads, “[F]or the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The men who founded this nation knew that they risked their lives in declaring independence from the crown. Had they not won the Revolutionary War, they would no doubt have been imprisoned or even hanged as traitors. Yet they were faithful not just to the promise of America, but to one another. It was this faithfulness that led the Founding Fathers and their countrymen through the war and through the first years of the nation’s existence. No man fought alone; each fought alongside his brethren, his countrymen, each relying on the other and his loyalty and faithfulness to forge a new nation.

Duty and Responsibility

Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Adams urged independence and a military response. While he was initially voted down by the Second Continental Congress, which sought to exhaust all avenues of possible reconciliation with Britain before taking the irrevocable measure of declaring independence, he found solace in the figure of Washington. The future first president, a delegate from Virginia, wore a black armband in mourning for his sister colony of Massachusetts. He told Adams that he was prepared to raise an army, at his own personal expense, to march to the aid of the besieged Massachusetts. When Adams, truly touched, thanked Washington for his generosity, the latter is said to have replied, “It is not generosity, Mr. Adams; it is duty.”

This sense of duty, certainly, was evinced by many of the Founding Fathers, who set aside profitable trades, vast estates, promising careers, sterling reputations, and even friends and family for the sake of fighting for America, but Washington demonstrated time and time again the true man’s practice of shouldering duties and responsibilities. When asked to lead the Continental Army — a largely untrained, ill supplied, rag-tag collection of farmers, tradesmen, merchants, and former militiamen — against the most powerful military the world had yet seen, Washington did not shirk or shy away, but took the tremendous responsibility upon himself.

After leading the fledgling America to victory, Washington was elected president, a role he did not particularly want. As one of the wealthiest of the Founding Fathers, he preferred to retire to his plantation and manage his household, not a nation. Nevertheless, he took the job, out of a sense of duty to his country and his countrymen. When his term came to an end, Washington again sought retirement. He was weary of the duties of his office, particularly the infighting among his cabinet members and the political conflicts between Hamilton’s Federalist Party and Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans, and his health was deteriorating. His nephew, George Augustine Washington, who was managing his estate of Mount Vernon while Washington served as president, was also in poor health, and Washington’s wife, Martha, asked him to reconsider running for office.

Madison, however, warned Washington that the political fractures in his cabinet needed to be kept from widening by a firm and steady hand, and both Jefferson and Hamilton set aside their political quarreling to plead with Washington run for a second term. He was, once again, unanimously elected to office. Although not bound by any term limits, Washington voluntarily departed the office at the end of his second term, laying down his power once his duty was fulfilled.

In an age of ambition and politicking, when men vie for power and rarely ever lay it down once taken up, Washington stands as an admirable example of what it means to treat power and public life as a duty and a responsibility, to be shouldered as a burden in times of need, and laid down again once the task is accomplished.