The Founding Fathers Deserve Full Due

During Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency, a time of chest-swelling patriotism, eight massive projects were launched under the auspices of the National Archives. The aim was to annotate and publish documents that illuminate and honor this nation’s formative years, an endeavor collectively known as the Founding Fathers papers.

Congress, the president and the National Archives correctly believed that all Americans, not just those who could travel to Washington or the other locations where these papers are preserved under glass, should be able to read for themselves the thoughts of Thomas Jefferson or George Washington, consider the debates over ratification of the Constitution, the proceedings of the first Congress, or how the first Supreme Court carried out its responsibilities. That reasoning is as sound today as it was in the 1950s, yet this worthy endeavor is now at some risk as it moves closer to completion.

In the decades since work began on the project, scholars at a handful of universities around the country have doggedly assembled and now are publishing the results. This has been a massive effort. The seven editors and historians who labor over Benjamin Franklin’s papers at Yale University have already published 32 annotated volumes of Franklin’s extensive correspondence and other writings and anticipate producing another 14 by 2006, their goal for completion. The completed volumes, like those containing John Adams’ papers or those of Alexander Hamilton, will be found in libraries around the nation, available to students, reporters, lawyers and anyone else who wants to read them.

Over the years, individual projects have cobbled together funding from several sources, combining grants from private foundations and individuals together with federal funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, an arm of the National Archives. But while federal funding is puny--the Founding Fathers projects receive an average of $150,000 annually from that source--it nonetheless is crucial, particularly now as these projects lumber toward their end.

Yet at its November meeting, the federal commission radically changed its spending priorities, emphasizing grants to states to support the acquisition and preservation of papers of their own choosing that might otherwise be lost or destroyed. This too is a worthy and entirely appropriate goal for the commission--but not right now. Given the commission’s other spending obligations and its tiny total budget--just $5 million this year--George Washington and the other political patriarchs could well be out in the cold. Without even the minimal federal funding it has been receiving, the Founding Fathers projects face a loss of experienced staff that could set back completion by years.

Some politicians and scholars complain that the projects have taken too long, and they are right. But now, as the years of scholarship are bearing fruit at an accelerating pace of publication, is not the time to cut off the money. At its meeting this week, the commission should revisit and reject its November decision to change the funding formula. Finish the job. Without even the minimal federal funding it has been receiving, the Founding Fathers project faces a loss of experienced staff that could set back completion by years.