The genius of the Founding Fathers was their ability not only to grasp the
revolutionary ideas of the period, but to devise a means of implementing those
ideas in practice, a means of translating them from the realm of philosophic
abstraction into that of sociopolitical reality. By defining in detail the
division of powers within the government and the ruling procedures, including
the brilliant mechanism of checks and balances, they established a system whose
operation and integrity were independent, so far as possible, of the moral
character of any of its temporary officials—a system impervious, so far as
possible, to subversion by an aspiring dictator or by the public mood of the
moment.
The heroism of the Founding Fathers was that they recognized an unprecedented
opportunity, the chance to create a country of individual liberty for the first
time in history—and that they staked everything on their judgment: the new
nation and their own “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.”