Founding Fathers of the United States

Declaration of Independence, an 1819 painting by John Trumbull, depicts the Committee of Five (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston) presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776.^[1]

The Founding Fathers of the United States, or simply the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, led the war for independence from Great Britain, and crafted a framework of government for the new United States of America during the later decades of the 18th century.

Most historians recognize prominent leaders of the revolutionary era such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton.^[2] In addition, Signers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are widely credited with the nation's founding, while other scholars include all delegates to the Constitutional Convention whether they signed the Constitution or not.^[3][4] In addition, some historians include signers of the Articles of Confederation, which was adopted as the nation's first constitution in 1781.^[5]

Beyond this, the criteria for inclusion vary as historians have come to single out individuals ranging from military leaders during the Revolutionary War and participants in events before the war to prominent writers, orators, and other contributors to the American cause, including both men and women.^[6][7][8][9] The debate has also shifted from the 19th century concept of the founders as demigods who created the modern nation-state to take into account contemporary concerns over the failures of the founding generation in addressing issues such as slavery and the treatment of Native Americans.^[10][11] More recently, yet another approach has been suggested that recognizes the accomplishments as well as the shortcomings of the nation's founders by viewing them within the context of their times.^[12]

Terminology

John Adams, in response to praise for his generation, rejoined, "I ought not to object to your reverence for your fathers, meaning those concerned with the direction of public affairs, but to tell you a very great secret . . . I have no reason to believe we were better than you are." He also wrote, "Don't call me, . . . Father . . . [or] Founder . . . These titles belong to no man, but to the American people in general."^[13] Even so, the terms fathers, forefathers, and founders were often used in political speeches.^[7] In his second inaugural address in 1805, Thomas Jefferson referred to those who first came to the New World as "forefathers".^[14] At his 1825 inauguration, John Quincy Adams called the Constitution "the work of our forefathers" and expressed his gratitude to "founders of the Union".^[15] In July of the following year, Quincy Adams, in an executive order upon the deaths of his father John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, paid tribute to the two as both "Fathers" and "Founders of the Republic".^[16] These terms were used in the United States throughout the nineteenth century, from the inaugurations of Martin Van Buren and James Polk in 1837 and 1845, to Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union speech in 1860 and his Gettysburg Address in 1863, and all the way up to William McKinley's first inauguration in 1897.^{[17][18][19][20]}

In 1902, the constitutional lawyer and later congressman, James M. Beck, delivered an address titled "Founders of the Republic" on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the holiday known as, George Washington's Birthday. In it, he connected the concepts of founders and fathers: "It is well for us to remember certain human aspects of the founders of the republic. Let me first refer to the fact that these fathers of the republic were for the most part young men." Beck included George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Marshall in his pantheon of founders. He also credited the 51 members of the Continental Congress who adopted the Declaration of Independence, mentioned John Hancock, Josiah Quincy, and Joseph Warren for their connections with the Boston Tea Party, and singled out Revolutionary War leaders such as Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox, John Paul Jones, and "Mad Anthony" Wayne.^[9]

The phrase "Founding Fathers," was first coined by Senator Warren G. Harding in his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention in 1916.^[21] Harding repeated the phrase at his own inauguration in 1921.^[22] While presidents and others would use the terms "founders" and "fathers" in their speeches throughout the 20th century, it would be another sixty years before one would use Harding's phrase during the inaugural ceremonies. Ronald Reagan referred to "Founding Fathers" at both his first inauguration in 1981 and his second in 1985.^[23][24] The term "Founding Fathers" has been widely used in histories of the founding era, beginning with Kenneth Bernard Umbreit's Founding Fathers: Men who Shaped Our Tradition in 1941.^[25][7]

Key Founding Fathers

Historian Richard B. Morris identified seven figures as key Founding Fathers in his 1973 book Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries. His selections, based on what Morris called the "triple tests" of leadership, longevity, and statesmanship, included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.^[26]

Signature page of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 that was negotiated on behalf of the United States by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay

Morris's selection of seven "greats" has become widely accepted.^[8][7] Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were members of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Federalist Papers, which advocated the ratification of the Constitution, were written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. The constitutions drafted by Jay and Adams for their respective states of New York (1777) and Massachusetts (1780) were heavily relied upon when creating language for the U.S. Constitution.^[27][28][29] Jay, Adams, and Franklin negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that brought an end to the American Revolutionary War.^[30]

Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and later president of the Constitutional Convention.^[31][32] All held additional important roles in the early government of the United States, with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison serving as the first four presidents; Adams and Jefferson as the first two vice presidents; Jay as the nation's first chief justice; Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury; Jefferson and Madison as Secretaries of State; and Franklin as America's most senior diplomat and later governor of Pennsylvania.

Framers and signers of founding documents

Portraits and autograph signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The National Archives has identified three founding documents as the "Charters of Freedom": Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and Bill of Rights. According to the Archives, these documents "have secured the rights of the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States."^[33] In addition, as the nation's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union has also gained acceptance as a founding document.^[34][35]

As a result, signers of three key documents are generally considered to be Founding Fathers of the United States: Declaration of Independence (DI),^[3] Articles of Confederation (AC),^[5] and U.S. Constitution (USC).^[4] The following table provides a list of these signers, some of whom signed more than one document.

Delegates who did not sign the U.S. Constitution

In addition to recognizing the 39 signers of the U.S. Constitution, some sources also consider those who helped write the document but did not sign it to be founders.^[4] The following list includes the 16 framers who participated in the Constitutional Convention but, for one reason or another, did not sign the document presented to the Confederation Congress for adoption by the states:^[36][37]

Additional founders

In addition to the signers of the founding documents and the seven notable leaders previously mentioned — Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Jefferson, Madison, and Washington — the following are regarded as founders based on their contributions to the birth and early development of the new nation:

• Abigail Adams, wife, confidant, and advisor to John Adams, as well as second First Lady and mother of president John Quincy Adams.^[38][39][40]
• Ethan Allen, military leader and founder of Vermont.^[41][38]
• Crispus Attucks, believed to be of Native American and African descent, the first person killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770 and thus the first to die in the American Revolution.^[42] Of the deaths at Boston John Adams would later write, "On that night the foundations of American independence was laid."^[43]
• George Clinton, first governor of New York, 1777–1795, and fourth vice president of the U.S., 1805–1812.^[44]
• Patrick Henry, gifted orator, known for his famous quote, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"; served as a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, first and sixth governor of Virginia, 1776—1779 and 1784–1786.^[45]
• Henry Knox, chief artillery officer in the Continental Army in most of Washington's campaigns, later to become the first Secretary of War under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.^[9]
• Robert R. Livingston, member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, 1776; first U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1781–1783, and first Chancellor of New York, 1777–1801. He administered the oath of office to George Washington.^[46][47]
• Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth U.S. president James Madison, regarded as the most important First Lady of the 19th century, 1809–1817.^[48][49]
• John Marshall, fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1801–1835.^[38][50]
• James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, 1817–1825.^[51]
• James Otis Jr., considered one of the earliest founders; proponent of American independence. opponent of slavery, and leader of Massachusetts' Committee of Correspondence, all in the 1760s.^[52][53]
• Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and other influential pamphlets in the 1770s; sometimes referred to as "Father of the American Revolution".^[38][54][55] Strongly opposed to checks and balances in separate branches of government, for which he was criticized by John Adams.^[56]
• Peyton Randolph, speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the First Continental Congress, and a signer of the Continental Association.^[57]
• Paul Revere, silversmith, member of the Sons of Liberty which staged the Boston Tea Party, and one of two horsemen in the midnight ride.^[58][38]
• Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress from its formation to its final session, 1774–1789.^[59]
• Joseph Warren, respected physician and architect of the Revolutionary movement, known as the "Founding Martyr" for his death at the Battle of Bunker Hill, drafted the Suffolk Resolves in response to the Intolerable Acts.^[60]
• Mercy Otis Warren, poet, playwright and pamphleteer during the American Revolution.^[38][61]
• "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a prominent army general during the Revolutionary War.^[62][38]

Colonies unite

  First Continental Congress at prayer,
by T. H. Matteson, 1848

Beginning in the mid-1760s, Parliament began to levy taxes on the colonies to raise funds for Britain's debts from the French and Indian War a decade earlier.^[63][64] Opposition to Stamp Act and Townshend Acts united the colonies in a common cause.^[65] While the Stamp Act was withdrawn, taxes on tea remained under the Townshend Acts and took on a new form in 1773 with Parliament's adoption of the Tea Act. The new tea tax, along with stricter customs enforcement, was not well received across the colonies, particularly in Massachusetts.^[66]

On December 16, 1773, 150 colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded ships in Boston and dumped 342 chests of tea into the city's harbor, a protest that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party.^[67][68] Orchestrated by Samuel Adams and the Boston Committee of Correspondence, the protest was viewed as treasonous by British authorities.^[69] In response, Parliament passed the Coercive or Intolerable Acts, a series of punitive laws that closed Boston's port and placed the colony under direct control of the British government. These measures stirred unrest throughout the colonies, which felt Parliament had overreached its authority and was posing a threat to the self-rule that had existed in the Americas since the 1600s.^[66]

Intent on responding to the Acts, twelve of the Thirteen Colonies agreed to send delegates to meet in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress, with Georgia declining because it needed British military support in its conflict with native tribes.^[70] The concept of an American union had been entertained long before 1774, but always embraced the idea that it would be subject to the authority of the British Empire. By 1774, however, letters published in colonial newspapers, mostly by anonymous writers, began asserting the need for a "Congress" to represent all Americans, one that would have equal status with British authority.^[71]

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was brought together to deal with a series of pressing issues the colonies were facing with Britain. Its delegates were men considered to be the most intelligent and thoughtful among the colonialists. In the wake of the Intolerable Acts, at the hands of an unyielding British King and Parliament, the colonies were forced to choose between either totally submitting to arbitrary Parliamentary authority or resorting to unified armed resistance.^[72][73] The new Congress functioned as the directing body in declaring a great war, and was sanctioned only by reason of the guidance it provided during the armed struggle. Its authority remained ill defined, and few of its delegates realized that events would soon lead them to deciding policies that ultimately established a "new power among the nations". In the process the Congress performed many experiments in government before an adequate Constitution evolved.^[74][75]

First Continental Congress

The First Continental Congress, convened at Philadelphia's Carpenter's Hall on September 5, 1774.^[76] The Congress, which had no legal authority to raise taxes or call on colonial militias, consisted of 56 delegates, including George Washington of Virginia; John Adams and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts; John Jay of New York; John Dickinson of Pennsylvania; and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was unanimously elected its first president.^[77][78]

The Congress came close to disbanding in its first few days over the issue of representation, with smaller colonies desiring equality with the larger ones. While Patrick Henry, from the largest colony, Virginia, disagreed, he stressed the greater importance of uniting the colonies: "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American!".

The delegates then began with a discussion of the Suffolk Resolves, which had just been approved at a town meeting in Milton, Massachusetts.^[79] Joseph Warren, chairman of the Resolves drafting committee, had dispatched Paul Revere to deliver signed copies to the Congress in Philadelphia.^[80][81][69] The Resolves called for the ouster of British officials, a trade embargo of British goods, and the formation of militia throughout the colonies.^[79] Despite the radical nature of the resolves, on September 17 the Congress passed them in their entirety in exchange for assurances that Massachusetts' colonists would do nothing to provoke war.^[82][83]

The delegates then approved a series of measures, including a Petition to the King in an appeal for peace and a Declaration and Resolves which introduced the ideas of natural law and natural rights, foreshadowing some of the principles found in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.^[84] The declaration asserted the rights of colonists and outlined Parliament's abuses of power. It also included a trade boycott known as the Continental Association.^[85] The Association, a crucial step toward unification, empowered committees of correspondence throughout the colonies to enforce the boycott. The Declaration and its boycott directly challenged Parliament's right to govern in the Americas, bolstering the view of King George III and his administration under Lord North that the colonies were in a state of rebellion.^[86]

Lord Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the Colonies who had been sympathetic to the Americans, condemned the newly established Congress for what he considered its illegal formation and actions.^[87][88] In tandem with the Intolerable Acts, British Army commander-in-chief Lieutenant General Thomas Gage was installed as governor of Massachusetts. In January 1775, Gage's superior, Lord Dartmouth, ordered the general to arrest those responsible for the Tea Party and to seize the munitions that had been stockpiled by militia forces outside Boston. The letter took several months to reach Gage, who acted immediately by sending out 700 army regulars.^[89] During their march to Lexington and Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775, the British troops encountered militia forces, who had been warned the night before by Paul Revere and another messenger on horseback, William Dawes. Even though no one knows who fired the first shot, battles broke out and the Revolutionary War began.^[90]

Second Continental Congress

Less than three weeks after the Battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775 in the Pennsylvania State House. The gathering essentially reconstituted the First Congress with many of the same delegates in attendance.^[91] Among the new arrivals were Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris, both of Pennsylvania; John Hancock of Massachusetts, John Witherspoon of New Jersey, and Charles Carroll of Maryland. Hancock was elected president two weeks into the session when Peyton Randolph was recalled to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses as speaker. Thomas Jefferson replaced Randolph in the Virginia delegation.^[92] They immediately began reviewing depositions from eyewitnesses and other papers recounting the fighting in Massachusetts.^[93]

The Congress then appointed a committee to draft rules to govern the military and in so doing established the Continental Army on June 14.^[94] The next day Samuel and John Adams nominated Washington as commander-in-chief, a motion that was unanimously approved.^[95] Three days later, Patriot and British forces clashed at Bunker Hill on June 17, resulting in a costly British victory.^[96] In an effort to justify military preparations, Congress passed the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms on July 6, written by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Dickinson.^[94]

The debate over proportionate representation was hotly debated in the First Continental Congress, but was never resolved due to the lack of colonial population data at the time.^[97] Subsequently one of the first issues debated and a major source of contention was over proportionate representation, where the larger colonies would carry greater weight over the smaller ones. Benjamin Harrison and Patrick Henry stood firmly on the idea that the larger states have proportionate voting status. Samuel Chase and Thomas Stone of Maryland, a state with a much smaller population than Virginia, maintained that, "The small colonies have a right to happiness and security; they would not have no safety if the great colonies were not limited." Samuel Huntington of Connecticut aired concerns that if a larger state could have its voting status limited, that it might pave the way to having a colony's borders pared to so limit its territory. Benjamin Franklin held that votes of any colony should be proportional to its population, and that if the smaller states were granted equal voting status that they bear equal financial burdens and provide as many men in military matters as the larger colonies would.^[98] William Paterson of New Jersey felt such a policy "struck at the very existence" of the smaller states.^[99] Many of the delegates regarded the idea of proportional representation as a way for the larger states, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, in "snuffing out ten states by three", and refused to entrust this responsibility to the people of those states.^[100]

The newly founded country needed a government to replace the one created by Parliament. After more than a year of debate, on November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, a constitution establishing a national government with a one-house legislature. Its ratification by all thirteen colonies, which took nearly four years, gave the Congress a new name: the Congress of the Confederation.^[101][102] In spite of its shortcomings, the Articles served as the nation's first Constitution during the last two years of the war and the ensuing five-year period.^[103] The issue of proportional representation, granting larger colonies greater voting status became the law, was incorporated into the Articles of Confederation, and would remain so until it was contested and a compromise, proposed by Roger Sherman, was obtained during the Constitutional ratification debates. The idea of proportional representation remained a major issue that kept many of the founders divided over political ideology throughout the revolution and early years of the newly established country.^[104][105]

Independence

Under the auspices of the Second Continental Congress and its Committee of Five,^[106] Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. It was presented to the Congress by the Committee on June 28,^[107] and after much debate and editing of the document, on July 2, 1776,^[108][109] Congress passed the Lee Resolution, which declared the United Colonies independent from Great Britain, and two days later, on July 4, adopted the Declaration of Independence.^[110] The name "United States of America", which first appeared in the Declaration, was formally adopted by the Congress on September 9, 1776.^[111]

In an effort to get this important document promptly into the public realm John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress, commissioned John Dunlap, editor and printer of the Pennsylvania Packet, to print 200 broadside copies of the Declaration, which came to be known as the Dunlap broadsides. Printing commenced the day after the Declaration was adopted. They were distributed throughout the 13 colony/states with copies sent to General Washington and his troops at New York with a directive that it be read aloud. Copies were also sent to Britain and other points in Europe.^{[112][113][107]}

Constitution and ratification

The Constitutional Convention took place during the summer of 1787, in Philadelphia.^[114] Although the convention was called to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset for some, including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, was to create a new framework of government rather than amend the existing one.^[115]

The fifty-five delegates attending the Constitutional Convention were a group of distinguished men who represented a cross section of eighteenth century America. Nearly all of them were well educated and prominent in their respective states. Nearly all were involved in the revolution and its war, with at least twenty-nine of them who fought in the Continental Army. The group in its entirety had extensive political experience; Forty-one individuals of the fifty-five delegates were or had been members of the Continental Congress.^[116]

The delegates elected George Washington, whom they all trusted, to preside over the convention.^[115] The result of the convention was the United States Constitution. After the Constitution had been adopted, Madison maintained that it was Washington's influence that brought overall acceptance of the Constitution.^[117] The ratified Constitution was, however, met with much criticism from anti-federalists, led by Patrick Henry and George Mason, and which also included Samuel Adams and Elbridge Gerry, none of whom had signed the Constitution, and who strongly contended that in its present form the Constitution did not provide any safeguards for individual liberties from the federal government.^[118] This is what brought about a Bill of Rights to this end. Madison, influenced by Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence,^[119] was the principle author of the Bill of Rights whose final draft was completed on September 25, 1789 and ratified on December 15, 1791.^[120] Madison thus came to be widely considered the foremost champion of religious liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press in the founding era.^[121]

Social background and commonalities

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy (1940)

George Washington served as president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.^[32]

Benjamin Franklin, an early advocate of colonial unity, was a foundational figure in defining the US ethos and exemplifying the emerging nation's ideals.

Robert R. Livingston, member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.^[122]

Alexander Hamilton served as Washington's senior aide-de-camp during most of the Revolutionary War; wrote 51 of the 85 articles comprising the Federalist Papers; and created much of the administrative framework of the government.

John Jay was president of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779, negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Adams and Franklin, and wrote The Federalist Papers with Hamilton and Madison.

James Madison, called the "Father of the Constitution" by his contemporaries^[123]

Peyton Randolph, as president of the Continental Congress, presided over creation of the Continental Association.^[77]

Richard Henry Lee, who introduced the Lee Resolution in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain

John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, renowned for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence

John Dickinson authored the first draft of the Articles of Confederation in 1776 while serving in the Continental Congress as a delegate from Pennsylvania, and signed them late the following year, after being elected to Congress as a delegate from Delaware.

Henry Laurens was president of the Continental Congress (November 1, 1777 - December 9, 1778) when the Articles were passed on November 15, 1777.^[124]

Roger Sherman, member of the Committee of Five, signed Olive Branch Petition in 1775; the only person who signed all four major U.S. founding documents.^[125]

Robert Morris, president of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety, "Financier of the Revolution", and one of the founders of the financial system of the United States.

The Founding Fathers represented a cross-section of the 18th-century U.S. population, all were males, non-Hispanic whites of Western European (English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Dutch) ancestry. All were Christian or deists, Charles and David Carroll among the few Catholics. Some were leaders in their communities; several were also prominent in national affairs. At least 29 members of the Constitutional Convention had served in the Continental Army, some in positions of command.^{[126][127][128]}

Education

Many of the Founding Fathers attended or graduated from the colonial colleges, most notably Columbia (known at the time as "King's College"), Princeton originally known as "The College of New Jersey", Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College of William and Mary. Some had previously been home schooled or obtained early instruction from private tutors or academies.^[126][129] Others had studied abroad. Ironically, Franklin who had little formal education, would ultimately establish the College of Philadelphia (1755) and earned an international reputation in science; "Penn" would have the first medical school (1765) in the thirteen colonies where another Founder, Rush, would eventually teach.

With a limited number of professional schools established in the colonies, Founders also sought advanced degrees from traditional institutions in Scotland, including University of Edinburgh, University of St Andrews, and University of Glasgow.

Colleges attended

• College of William and Mary: Jefferson, Harrison^[130]
• Harvard College: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Hancock and William Williams
• King's College (now Columbia): Jay, Hamilton,^[131] Gouverneur Morris, Robert Livingston and Egbert Benson.^[132]
• College of New Jersey (now Princeton): Madison, Bedford, Rush, and Paterson
• College of Philadelphia, later merged into the University of Pennsylvania: eight signers of the Declaration of Independence and twelve signers of the U.S. Constitution^[133]
• Yale College: Wolcott and Andrew Adams
• James Wilson attended the University of St Andrews and the University of Glasgow^[134]

Advanced degrees and apprenticeships

Doctors of Medicine

• University of Edinburgh: Rush ^[135]
• University of Utrecht, Netherlands: Hugh Williamson

Theology

• University of Edinburgh: Witherspoon (attended, no degree)
• University of St Andrews: Witherspoon (honorary doctorate)

Legal apprenticeships

Several like Jay, Wilson, John Williams and Wythe^[136] were trained as lawyers through apprenticeships in the colonies while a few trained at the Inns of Court in London. Charles Carroll earned his law degree at Temple in London.

Self-taught or little formal education

Franklin, Washington, John Williams and Wisner had little formal education and were largely self-taught or learned through apprenticeship.

Demographics

The great majority were born in the Thirteen Colonies, but eighteen were born in other parts of the British Empire:

• England: Robert Morris, Banister, Duer, Jackson, and Gwinnett
• Ireland: James Smith, Butler, Fitzsimons, McHenry, Taylor, Thomson, Thornton, and Paterson
• West Indies: Hamilton and Roberdeau
• Scotland: Wilson, Telfair, and Witherspoon

Many of them had moved from one colony to another. Eighteen had lived, studied or worked in more than one colony: Baldwin, Bassett, Bedford, Dickinson, Few, Franklin, Ingersoll, Hamilton, Livingston, Martin, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, Read, Sherman, and Williamson. Several others had studied or traveled abroad.

Occupations

The Founding Fathers practiced a wide range of high and middle-status occupations, and many pursued more than one career simultaneously. They did not differ dramatically from the Loyalists, except they were generally younger and less senior in their professions.^[137]

• As many as 35 including Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Jay were trained as lawyers though not all of them practiced law. Some had also been local judges.^[126]
• Washington trained as a land surveyor before he became colonel of the Virginia Regiment.
• At the time of the convention, 13 men were merchants: Blount, Broom, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Gilman, Gorham, Langdon, Robert Morris, Pierce, Sherman, and Wilson.
• Broom and Few were small farmers.
• Franklin, McHenry and Mifflin had retired from active economic endeavors.
• Franklin and Williamson were scientists, in addition to their other activities.
• McHenry, Rush and Williamson were physicians.
• William Samuel Johnson and Witherspoon were college presidents.

Finances

A few of them were wealthy or had financial resources that ranged from good to excellent, but there are other founders who were less than wealthy. On the whole they were less wealthy than the Loyalists.^[137]

• Seven were major land speculators: Blount, Dayton, Fitzsimmons, Gorham, Robert Morris, Washington, and Wilson.
• Eleven speculated in securities on a large scale: Bedford, Blair, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Franklin, King, Langdon, Robert Morris, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Sherman.
• Many derived income from plantations or large farms which they owned or managed, which relied upon the labor of enslaved men and women particularly in the Southern colonies: Bassett, Blair, Blount, Butler, Charles Carroll, Davie,^[138] Jefferson, Jenifer, Johnson, Madison, Mason, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Rutledge, Spaight, and Washington.
• Eight of the men received a substantial part of their income from public office: Baldwin, Blair, Brearly, Gilman, Livingston, Madison, and Rutledge.

Prior political experience

Several of the Founding Fathers had extensive national, state, local and foreign political experience prior to the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. Some had been diplomats. Several had been members of the Continental Congress.

• Franklin began his political career as a city councilman and then Justice of the Peace in Philadelphia. He was then elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and was sent to London as a colonial agent which helped hone his diplomatic skills.
• Jefferson, Adams, Jay and Franklin all acquired significant political experience as ministers to countries in Europe.
• Adams and Jay drafted the constitutions of their respective states, Massachusetts and New York, and successfully navigated them through to adoption.
• Jay, Mifflin and Gorham had served as president of the Continental Congress.
• Gouverneur Morris had been a member of the New York Provincial Congress.
• Dickinson, Franklin, Langdon, and Rutledge had been governors or presidents of their states.
• Robert Morris had been a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly and president of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety. He was also a member of the Committee of Secret Correspondence.
• Sherman had served in the Connecticut House of Representatives.
• Gerry was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress.
• Daniel Carroll served in the Maryland Senate.
• Wythe had served as a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses.
• Read was a commissioner of Charlestown, Maryland.
• Clymer was a member of the Philadelphia Committee of Safety and the Continental Congress.

Nearly all of the Founding Fathers had some experience in colonial and state government, and the majority had held county and local offices.^[139] Those who lacked national congressional experience were Bassett, Blair, Brearly, Broom, Davie, Dayton, Martin, Mason, McClurg, Paterson, Charles Pinckney, and Strong.

Religion

Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 28 were Anglicans (i.e. Church of England; or Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), 21 were other Protestant, and two were Roman Catholic (Daniel Carroll and Fitzsimons; Charles Carroll was Roman Catholic but was not a Constitution signatory).^[140] Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists.^[140] A few prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical, notably Jefferson.^[141][142] Historian Gregg L. Frazer argues that the leading Founders (John Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Wilson, Morris, Madison, Hamilton, and Washington) were neither Christians nor Deists, but rather supporters of a hybrid "theistic rationalism".^[143] Many Founders deliberately avoided public discussion of their faith. Historian David L. Holmes uses evidence gleaned from letters, government documents, and second-hand accounts to identify their religious beliefs.^[144]

Slavery

George Washington and his valet slave William Lee, by John Trumbull, 1780

The Founding Fathers were not unified on the issue of slavery. Many of them were opposed to it and repeatedly attempted to end slavery in many of the colonies, but predicted that the issue would threaten to tear the country apart and had limited power to deal with it. In her study of Jefferson, historian Annette Gordon-Reed discusses this topic, "Others of the founders held slaves, but no other founder drafted the charter for freedom".^[145] In addition to Jefferson, Washington and many other of the Founding Fathers were slaveowners, but some were also conflicted by the institution, seeing it as immoral and politically divisive; Washington gradually became a cautious supporter of abolitionism and freed his slaves in his will. Jay and Hamilton led the successful fight to outlaw the slave trade in New York, with the efforts beginning as early as 1777.^[146][147] Conversely, many Founders such as Samuel Adams and John Adams were against slavery their entire lives. Rush wrote a pamphlet in 1773 which criticizes the slave trade as well as the institution of slavery. In the pamphlet, Rush argues on a scientific basis that Africans are not by nature intellectually or morally inferior, and that any apparent evidence to the contrary is only the "perverted expression" of slavery, which "is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it." The Continental Association contained a clause which banned any Patriot involvement in slave trading.^{[148][149][150][151]}

Franklin, though he was a key founder of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society,^[152] originally owned slaves whom he later manumitted (released from slavery). While serving in the Rhode Island Assembly, in 1769 Hopkins introduced one of the earliest anti-slavery laws in the colonies. When Jefferson entered public life as a young member of the House of Burgesses, he began his career as a social reformer by an effort to secure legislation permitting the emancipation of slaves. Jay founded the New York Manumission Society in 1785, for which Hamilton became an officer. They and other members of the Society founded the African Free School in New York City, to educate the children of free blacks and slaves. When Jay was governor of New York in 1798, he helped secure and signed into law an abolition law; fully ending forced labor as of 1827. He freed his own slaves in 1798. Hamilton opposed slavery, as his experiences in life left him very familiar with slavery and its effect on slaves and on slaveholders,^[153] although he did negotiate slave transactions for his wife's family, the Schuylers.^[154] Many of the Founding Fathers never owned slaves, including John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Paine.^[155]

Slaves and slavery are mentioned only indirectly in the 1787 Constitution. For example, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 prescribes that "three-fifths of all other Persons" are to be counted for the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and direct taxes. Additionally, in Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, slaves are referred to as "persons held in service or labor".^[152][156] The Founding Fathers, however, did make important efforts to contain slavery. Many Northern states had adopted legislation to end or significantly reduce slavery during and after the American Revolution.^[156] In 1782, Virginia passed a manumission law that allowed slave owners to free their slaves by will or deed.^[157] As a result, thousands of slaves were manumitted in Virginia.^[157] In the Ordinance of 1784, Jefferson proposed to ban slavery in all the western territories, which failed to pass Congress by one vote. Partially following Jefferson's plan, Congress did ban slavery in the Northwest Ordinance, for lands north of the Ohio River. The international slave trade was banned in all states except South Carolina by 1800. Finally in 1807, President Jefferson called for and signed into law a federally enforced ban on the international slave trade throughout the U.S. and its territories. It became a federal crime to import or export a slave. However, the domestic slave trade was allowed for expansion or for diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory.^[156]

Attendance at conventions

In the winter and spring of 1786–1787, twelve of the thirteen states chose a total of 74 delegates to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Nineteen delegates chose not to accept election or attend the debates. Among them was Henry, who in response to questions about his refusal to attend was quick to reply, "I smelled a rat." He believed that the frame of government the convention organizers were intent on building would trample upon the rights of citizens.^[158] Also, Rhode Island's lack of representation at the convention was the result of suspicions of the convention delegates' motivations. As the colony was founded by Roger Williams as a sanctuary for Baptists, Rhode Island's absence at the convention in part explains the absence of Baptist affiliation among those who did attend. Of the 55 who did attend at some point, no more than 38 delegates showed up at one time.^[159]

Spouses and children

Only four (Baldwin, Gilman, Jenifer, and Martin) were lifelong bachelors. Many of the Founding Fathers' wives, such as Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Sarah Livingston Jay, Dolley Madison, Mary White Morris and Catherine Alexander Duer, were strong women who made significant contributions of their own to the fight for liberty.^[160] Sherman fathered the largest family: 15 children by two wives. At least nine (Bassett, Brearly, Johnson, Mason, Paterson, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Sherman, Wilson, and Wythe) married more than once. Washington, who became known as "The Father of His Country",^[161] had no biological children, though he and his wife raised two children from her first marriage and two grandchildren.

Post-constitution life

Subsequent events in the lives of the Founding Fathers after the adoption of the Constitution were characterized by success or failure, reflecting the abilities of these men as well as the vagaries of fate.^[162] Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe served in the highest U.S. office of president. Jay was appointed as the first chief justice of the United States and later was elected to two terms as governor of New York. Hamilton was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, and later Inspector General of the Army under President John Adams in 1798.

Seven (Fitzsimons, Gorham, Luther Martin, Mifflin, Robert Morris, Pierce, and Wilson) suffered serious financial reversals that left them in or near bankruptcy. Robert Morris spent three of the last years of his life imprisoned following bad land deals.^[160] Two, Blount and Dayton, were involved in possibly treasonous activities. Yet, as they had done before the convention, most of the group continued to render public service, particularly to the new government they had helped to create.

Death age of the Founding Fathers

Many of the Founding Fathers were under 40 years old at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776: Hamilton was 21 and Gouverneur Morris was 24. The oldest was Franklin at 70.^[163] A few Founding Fathers lived into their nineties, including: Charles Carroll, who died at age 95; Thomson, who died at 94; William Samuel Johnson, who died at 92; and John Adams, who died at 90. The last remaining Founders, also poetically called the "Last of the Romans", lived well into the 19th century.^[164] The last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll, who died in 1832.^[165] The last surviving member of the Continental Congress was John Armstrong Jr., who died in 1843.^[166] Three (Hamilton, Spaight, and Gwinnett) were killed in duels. Adams and Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1826.^[167]

Legacy and cultural impact

Institutions formed by founders

Several Founding Fathers were instrumental in establishing schools and societal institutions that still exist today:

• Franklin founded the University of Pennsylvania, while Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.
• Washington supported the founding of Washington College by consenting to have the "College at Chester" named in his honor, through generous financial support, and through service on the college's Board of Visitors and Governors.
• Rush founded Dickinson College and Franklin College, (today Franklin & Marshall College) as well as the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest medical society in America.
• Hamilton founded the New York Post, The Bank of New York, Hamilton-Oneida Academy (now Hamilton College), as well as what would become the United States Coast Guard.

Founding Fathers on U.S. currency and postage

Four U.S. Founders are minted on American currency — Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington; Washington appears on three different denominations and Jefferson appears on two.

Founding Father name	Currency image	Denomination
Benjamin Franklin		One hundred dollars $100
Alexander Hamilton		Ten dollars $10
Thomas Jefferson		Five cents (nickel) 5¢
Thomas Jefferson		Two dollars $2
George Washington		Quarter dollar (quarter) 25¢
George Washington		Dollar coin $1
George Washington		One dollar $1

Founders

George Washington, 1917 issue

Benjamin Franklin, 1918 issue

Thomas Jefferson, 1904 Issue

Founding events

Drafting the Articles of Confederation, 1977 issue

Washington at Cambridge, 1925 Issue

Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn, 1951 issue

In stage and film

The Founding Fathers were portrayed in the Tony Award–winning 1969 musical 1776, which depicted the debates over, and eventual adoption of, the Declaration of Independence. The stage production was adapted into the 1972 film of the same name. The 1989 film A More Perfect Union, which was filmed on location in Independence Hall, depicts the events of the Constitutional Convention. The writing and passing of the founding documents are depicted in the 1997 documentary miniseries Liberty!, and the passage of the Declaration of Independence is portrayed in the second episode of the 2008 miniseries John Adams and the third episode of the 2015 miniseries Sons of Liberty. The Founders also feature in the 1986 miniseries George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation, the 2002-03 animated television series Liberty's Kids, the 2020 miniseries Washington, and in many other films and television portrayals.

Several Founding Fathers—Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison—were reimagined in Hamilton, a 2015 musical inspired by Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, with music, lyrics and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The musical won eleven Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.^[168]

Scholarship on the founders

Several of the earliest histories of America's founding and its founders were written by Jeremy Belknap, William Gordon, David Ramsay, and Mercy Otis Warren.^[169]

Modern historians who focus on the Founding Fathers

Articles and books by 21st-century historians combined with the digitization of primary sources like handwritten letters continue to contribute to an encyclopedic body of knowledge about the Founding Fathers.

Ron Chernow won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 biography of Washington. His 2004 bestselling book Alexander Hamilton inspired the 2015 blockbuster musical of the same name.

According to Joseph Ellis, the concept of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. emerged in the 1820s as the last survivors died out. Ellis says "the founders", or "the fathers", comprised an aggregate of semi-sacred figures whose particular accomplishments and singular achievements were decidedly less important than their sheer presence as a powerful but faceless symbol of past greatness. For the generation of national leaders coming of age in the 1820s and 1830s – men like Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun – "the founders" represented a heroic but anonymous abstraction whose long shadow fell across all followers and whose legendary accomplishments defied comparison.

Joanne B. Freeman's area of expertise is the life and legacy of Hamilton as well as political culture of the revolutionary and early national eras.^{[171][172][173]} Freeman has documented the often opposing visions of the Founding Fathers as they tried to build a new framework for governance, "Regional distrust, personal animosity, accusation, suspicion, implication, and denouncement—this was the tenor of national politics from the outset."^[174]

Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian and Harvard Law School professor. She is noted for changing scholarship on Jefferson regarding his relationship with Sally Hemings and her children. She has studied the challenges faced by the Founding Fathers particularly as it relates to their position and actions on slavery. She points out "the central dilemma at the heart of American democracy: the desire to create a society based on liberty and equality" that yet does not extend those privileges to all."^[145]

David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 book, John Adams., focuses on the Founding Father, and his 2005 book, 1776, details Washington's military history in the American Revolution and other independence events carried out by America's founders.

Both Peter S. Onuf and Jack N. Rakove researched Jefferson extensively.

Noted collections of the Founding Fathers

• Adams Papers Editorial Project
• Founders Online – a searchable database of over 178,000 documents authored by or addressed to George Washington, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
• The Papers of Alexander Hamilton
• The Selected Papers of John Jay at Columbia University
• The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University
• The Papers of James Madison at University of Virginia
• The Washington Papers at University of Virginia
• The Franklin Papers at Yale University

Presidents of the United States

The first five U.S. presidents are regarded as Founding Fathers because of their active participation in the American Revolution^{[citation needed]}: Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. They all previously served as delegates in the Continental Congress.

Other notable patriots of the period

The following men and women also advanced the new nation through their actions.

Abigail Adams, close advisor to her husband John Adams

George Mason, author of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights and co-father of the United States Bill of Rights

• Richard Allen, African-American bishop, founder of the Free African Society and the African Methodist Episcopal Church^[175]
• John Bartram, botanist, horticulturist, and explorer^[176]
• Israel Bissell, a patriot post rider in Massachusetts who rode the news to Philadelphia of the British attack on Lexington and Concord.
• Elias Boudinot, New Jersey delegate to Continental Congress^[177]
• Aaron Burr, vice president under Jefferson^[178]
• Cato, a Black Patriot and slave who served as a spy alongside his owner, Hercules Mulligan. Cato carried intelligence gathered by Mulligan to officers in the Continental Army and other revolutionaries, including through British-held territory, which was credited for likely saving George Washington's life on at least two occasions. He was granted freedom in 1778 for his service.^[179]
• Angelica Schuyler Church, sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, corresponded with many of the leading Founding Fathers
• George Rogers Clark, army general,^[62] nicknamed "Conqueror of the Old Northwest".
• Tench Coxe, economist in the Continental Congress^[180]
• Albert Gallatin, politician and treasury secretary^[181]
• Horatio Gates, army general^[62]
• Nathanael Greene, Revolutionary War general; commanded the southern theater^[62]
• Nathan Hale, captured U.S. soldier executed in 1776^[182]
• Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton^[183][184]
• Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy
• James Iredell, essayist for independence and advocate for the constitution, one of the first Supreme Court justices^[38]
• John Paul Jones, navy captain^[62]
• Tadeusz Kościuszko, American general, former Polish army general^[181]
• Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish military, governor of Spanish Louisiana.
• Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French Marquis who became a Continental Army general^[185]
• John Laurance, New York politician and judge who served as Judge advocate general during the Revolution.^[186]
• Henry Lee III, army officer and Virginia governor^[62]
• William Maclay, Pennsylvania politician and U.S. senator^[38]
• Philip Mazzei, Italian physician, merchant, and author^[187]
• Daniel Morgan, military leader and Virginia congressman^[62]
• Hercules Mulligan, Irish-American tailor and spy, member of the Sons of Liberty
• Samuel Nicholas, commander-in-chief of the Continental Marines
• Andrew Pickens, army general and South Carolina congressman^[62]
• Timothy Pickering, U.S. secretary of state, from Massachusetts^[188]
• Oliver Pollock (1737-1823, a merchant, diplomat, and financier of the American Revolutionary War
• Israel Putnam, army general^[189]
• Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French army general^[181]
• John Rogers, Maryland lawyer and judge, delegate to the Continental Congress who voted for the Declaration of Independence but fell ill before he could sign it.
• Philip Schuyler, Revolutionary War general, U.S. senator from New York, father of the Schuyler sisters.
• Haym Solomon, financier and spy for the Continental Army^[190]
• Arthur St. Clair, major general, president of the Confederation Congress, and later first governor of the Northwest Territory
• Thomas Sumter, South Carolina military leader, and member of both houses of Congress^[62]
• Richard Varick, private secretary to George Washington, mayor of New York City, second attorney general of New York state, and founder of the American Bible Society
• Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian officer^[181]
• Noah Webster, writer, lexicographer, educator^[191]
• Thomas Willing, delegate to the Continental Congress from Pennsylvania, the first president of the Bank of North America, and the first president of the First Bank of the United States^[192]

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography

Online sources

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Founding Fathers of the United States.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Founding Fathers of the United States.

• Founders Online: Correspondence and Other Writings of Seven Major Shapers of the United States
• The Federalist Papers, The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldmaan Law Library, Yale University
• The Fates of Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Debunking the Myths, published June 28, 2005
• What Would the Founding Fathers Do Today? American Heritage, 2006 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2007-01-14)
• "Founding Father Quotes, Biographies, and Writings"
• Were the Founding Fathers 'Ordinary People'?, PolitiFact