More than 150 guests attended the second of the A250 Conversations series at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on Saturday, June 13. Co-sponsored by USA250-OC, the Nixon Foundation, and the National Archives, with special support from Charlie Zhang and the OC Register, the conversation conducted by four historians focused on American Founders who made significant contributions to our founding but are lesser-known.
Author-historians Bryan Santin, Mark Skousen, and Walter Stahr joined USA250-OC’s Jo Ellen Chatham for a lively and, at times, humorous conversation about John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, Roger Sherman, John Dickinson, and Charles Thomson. Benjamin Franklin’s role was included because he knew all of them and had his opinions about each of them!
Their roles in the years leading up to the events of 1776, drafting the Declaration, navigating the Revolutionary War, and writing the Constitution revealed how they agreed and disagreed on various topics, their individual contributions to these historic events, and the relationships among them.
The audience response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and we all look forward to the third in the A250 Conversation series on July 11, focusing on “Revolutionary Principles of the Constitution: The Record So Far and Challenges of the Future.”
