The founders: Only one best man for women

The Founding Fathers, a great group of guys, gathered in Philadelphia in July of 1776 and again in 1787. What a wonder, 55 bright lights met in one room to start a revolution that isn't over yet.

We know the Declaration of Independence signers and Constitution framers were also flawed human beings. Many were rich slave owners, Virginians most of all. They preferred to say "planters." But who was the "wokest" of them all? I mean, from a woman's point of view.

Not Alexander Hamilton, ladies and gentlemen, despite fabulous Broadway fame. Thomas Jefferson or John Adams? They dearly loved their wives.

For the Fourth of July, let's see about that.

Washing ashore, Hamilton was inventive and clever, charming but a bit ruthless in career-climbing. He was George Washington's adored young aide in the Revolutionary War and later his Treasury secretary.

Hamilton was no champion for women. He publicly confessed to bribing another man to keep quiet about his philandering. His wife Betsy was loyal and sweet - a tad drab - from a New York political family.

Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson is an enigma, but he clearly wrote the words, "All men are created equal." And he really meant to leave us out of that beautiful sentence.

Jefferson was tall, engaging and played the violin, among his many talents. He thought he was a dreamy catch with women, and indeed he was. After he and his wife Martha had two daughters, she died young. He soon made Sally Hemings his slave mistress - Martha's own half sister with the same white father. He had a second family with Hemings.

Jefferson never wrote a word about women rising in the public sphere, just as he never recognized his family of color. He was blind to inclusion for women and Blacks for all his long life. He died on the Fourth of July in 1826.

John Adams? No better. He had a peppery Yankee wife in Abigail. They wrote letters often, over long distance from Massachusetts to his diplomatic and political posts.

Oh, we know Abigail's famed line, "Remember the ladies," in her plea to write women into the Declaration. Adams was away in Philadelphia that July, editing Jefferson's work on parchment.

In an irony, John gets (SET ITAL) credit (END ITAL) for that line, though he roundly scoffed at his wife's proposal. Please don't tell me that Adams cared about women in general - fond as he was of Abigail.

Adams also died on the Fourth, the very day that Jefferson died, on the nation's 50th birthday. They were once allies, then enemies and then friends again in old age. They were white men of grand privilege and power who liked to keep it that way in the North and South.

Washington danced perfectly, but that's it. He married the richest widow in Virginia.

Who, then, was the best man for women at the start of the rocky American journey?

First, I'd put in a good word for two Philadelphians among the founders: William Penn and Dr. Benjamin Rush. Visionary in city planning and medicine, both were born into the Quaker belief in equality.

But you'll never guess who the best man was for us: Aaron Burr, the dashing man who slew Hamilton in the 1804 duel.

Burr and Hamilton were stars at an American Revolutionary patriots party on July 4, where Hamilton sang a solo that wrenched the company.

The secret duel was already set for July 11. Hamilton knew it was his last public stand.

Burr's wife Theodosia died rather young, like Jefferson's. He educated his daughter, also named Theodosia, privately, with all the rigor of his Princeton studies. She was the smartest girl in America.

Burr went beyond the personal. He read Mary Wollstonecraft's fiery political tract, a vindication of the rights of women.

"A work of genius," Burr told fellow senators in the 1790s. Nobody was interested.

I love him for that. Burr held nothing back on the revolutionary rights of women. He also cherished the minds and company of women.

The rest: a closed club of men's men.

On this 245th Fourth, the Capitol is clearing out its Confederate statues and busts.

In times that try our souls to the core, clarity on our past is one bittersweet gift.

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