In this episode, John discusses the religious beliefs of some of the most prominent and impactful of the founding fathers. John begins by briefly reviewing over the broad strokes of the religious history of the British North American colonies from the early 1600s to 1770, discussing the religious diversity of the colonies, the most common denominations and the Great Awakening. John then explains the fundamentals of one of the most important belief systems embraced by a number of the founding fathers he covers later in the episode: Deism.

John spends a few minutes on the religious beliefs of each of the following American leaders: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot and John Jay. He separates the men into two basic groups, the Deists and the Orthodox Christians and compares and contrasts their beliefs and how those beliefs impacted the structure of American government. John closes by giving his conclusions based on what he has learned by putting together this podcast.

In this episode, John finishes his discussion of the Constitutional Convention and the ratification of the document that created the current United States government. John briefly recaps the major accomplishments of the first two months of the Constitutional Convention and then discusses the Committee on Postponed Parts and how it proposed to resolve some of the major debates still taking place among the delegates. John profiles the presidency, as envisioned by the delegates, and explains what it was about the office, its powers and the concerns for how the person who filled the position would be selected that made the convention agree to the Electoral College.

Finally, John covers in some detail the process of ratification in the 13 states. He explains the motivations and perspectives of the various groups that influenced the process of ratifying the Constitution, how the process differed in each of the 13 states and which states had the most difficult time getting their conventions to approve the Constitution. John also briefly touches on the Federalist Papers and why they are so important to our understanding and interpretation of the Constitution.

In this episode, John does a deep dive into the Constitutional Convention. He goes into detail about how the debate over the Virginia Resolves shaped the direction of the convention, how it was that the "nationalists" like James Madison and James Wilson seized control of the debate with the Virginia Resolves to achieve their goals of reform and the way these proposals were received by delegates to the convention who did not participate in the process of shaping the resolves. John explains how the Virginia Plan, as the resolves came to be called, represented a revolution in the government of the United States and the many ways in which it was a radically different form of government than the Articles of Confederation.

John will also cover the major points of debate between those who wanted significant changes and those who did not, including the central argument that occupied the convention for the first half of its time together: proportional versus equal representation in the legislature. John also remarks upon the "indispensable men" of the convention, the arguments over the future of slavery in the United States and the specific powers that the new legislative, executive and judicial branches of the national government would have under the constitution.

The Onion article mentioned in the episode:

https://theonion.com/area-man-passionate-defender-of-what-he-imagines-consti-1819571149/