Joseph Ellis opens up "Founding Brothers" by explaining "No event in American history which was so improbable at the time has seemed to inevitable in retrospect as the American Revolution" (Ellis 3). He claimed the American Revolution was inevitable because of those who were urging for independence tried everything they could to gain independence. During the concern for independence, the brothers managed to take slavery off the political agenda, which to Ellis was the "most threatening and divisive issue" there was at the time (Ellis 17). He believed that if the brothers put an end to slavery it would cause political and economical problems, which would in turn corrupt the union it had already created. In order to protect the newly established union, the brothers kept any discussion about slavery on the down low and hidden from the public eyes at all times. Ellis believed that the reason why it is unknown if slavery could have been abolished at this time or not was being the brothers kept the subject of slavery silent. .
Shortly "before Jefferson's dinner party, two Quaker delegations presented a petition to the House of Representatives calling for the end to the African Slave trade" (Ellis 81). The House of Representative Members, such as James Jackson were shocked that the Quakers would have the nerve to show concern for Slave trade, because they did not risk their lives in the American Revolution. Also the recently ratified Constitution, prohibited the Congress from passing any laws "that abolished or restricted the slave trade until 1808" (Ellis 82). As Ellis describes "The Quakers were asking for mission impossible" (Ellis 82). Which lead to Congress pushing the petition off the side and hoping it would quickly disappear, at least that what Madison had in mind for the petition. This tactic was known as the Madisonian strategy.
