The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century
American revolutionary
Patriots, also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs, were the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rejected British rule during the American Revolution, and United States Declaration of Independence, declared the ...
leaders who
united
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
, oversaw the
war for independence from
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, established the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, and crafted a
framework of government for the new nation.
Historians generally recognize prominent leaders of the
Revolutionary Era (1765–1791), such as
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
,
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
,
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
,
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, and
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
, as Founding Fathers.
[ In addition, signers of the ]Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
and the U.S. Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
are widely credited with the nation's founding, while other scholars include all delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 whether they signed the Constitution or not.[ National Archives: Signers of the Declaration, Outline of signers][ National Archives, Framers of the Constitution] Furthermore, some historians include signers of the Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
, which was adopted as the nation's first constitution in 1781.[ Padover, 1958, pp. 191–214]
Beyond this, the criteria for inclusion vary. Historians have singled 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.[ Sneff, 2016, Essay] The debate has also shifted from the 19th-century concept of the Founders as demigods
A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...
who created the modern nation-state to take into account contemporary concerns over the inability of the founding generation to remedy issues such as slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
and the treatment of Native Americans. 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.
''Founding Father'' as a title
The exact phrase ''Founding Fathers'' was first coined by Senator Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
in his keynote speech at the Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
in 1916. Harding repeated the phrase at his own inauguration in 1921. While presidents used the terms ''founders'' and ''fathers'' in their speeches throughout the 20th century, it was another sixty years before one would use Harding's phrase during the inaugural ceremonies. Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
referred to "Founding Fathers" at both his first inauguration in 1981 and his second in 1985. The term ''Founding Fathers'' has been widely used in histories of the founding era, the earliest example being James J. Walsh's ''Education of the Founding Fathers of the Republic: Scholasticism in the Original Colleges'', which was published in 1935.
John Adams, in response to praise for his generation, rejoined, "I ought not to object to your reverence for your fathers ... 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 ... rFounder ... These titles belong to no man, but to the American people in general."
In his second inaugural address
Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on Saturday, March 4, 1865, during Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, his second inauguration as President of the United States. At a time when victory over secessionists in the American ...
(1805), Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
referred to those who first came to the New World as "forefathers". At his 1825 inauguration, John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
called the Constitution "the work of our forefathers" and expressed his gratitude to "founders of the Union". 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". These terms were used in the United States throughout the 19th century, from the inaugurations of Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (Uni ...
and James Polk
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
in 1837
Events
January–March
* January 1 – The destructive Galilee earthquake causes 6,000–7,000 casualties in Ottoman Syria.
* January 26 – Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the United States.
* February – Charles Dickens's ...
and 1845
Events
January–March
* January 10 – Elizabeth Barrett receives a love letter from the younger poet Robert Browning; on May 20, they meet for the first time in London. She begins writing her ''Sonnets from the Portuguese''.
* January 23 ...
, to Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
's Cooper Union speech
The Cooper Union speech or address, known at the time as the Cooper Institute speech, was delivered by Abraham Lincoln on February 27, 1860, at Cooper Union, in New York City. Lincoln was not yet the Republican nominee for the presidency, as the ...
in 1860 and his Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a Public speaking, speech that President of the United States, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, Soldiers' National Cemetery, ...
in 1863, and up to William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
's first inauguration in 1897.
At a 1902 celebration of Washington's Birthday
Presidents' Day, also called Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served as presidents of the United States and, since 1879 ...
in Brooklyn, New York, James M. Beck, the constitutional lawyer and later congressman, delivered an address titled "Founders of the Republic". 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
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...
, John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the first ...
, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Marshall
John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...
in his pantheon of founders. He also credited the members of the Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...
who adopted the Declaration of Independence, mentioned John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...
, Josiah Quincy, and Joseph Warren
Joseph Warren (June 11, 1741 – June 17, 1775), a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot movement in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution, ...
for their connections with the Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...
, and singled out Revolutionary War military leaders such as Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependabl ...
, Henry Knox
Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the ...
, John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...
, and "Mad Anthony" Wayne.
Key founders
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.[ Morris, 1973, p. 1]
Morris's selection of seven "greats" has become widely accepted.
Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were members of the Committee of Five
''
The Committee of Five of the Second Continental Congress was a group of five members who drafted and presented to the full Congress in Pennsylvania State House what would become the United States Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. Th ...
that drafted the Declaration of Independence. ''The Federalist Papers
''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The co ...
'', which advocated the ratification of the Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
, 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. Franklin, Jay and Adams negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France:
Treaties
1200s and 1300s
* Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade
* Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France
* Trea ...
that brought an end to the American Revolutionary War.
Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
and later president of the Constitutional Convention.[ Jilson, 1994, p. 291] 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
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
; Adams and Jefferson as the first two vice presidents
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
; Jay as the nation's first chief justice; Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
; Jefferson and Madison as Secretaries of State; and Franklin as America's most senior diplomat and later governor of Pennsylvania
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
.
Framers and signers
The National Archives has identified three founding documents as the "Charters of Freedom": Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
, and Bill of Rights
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...
. 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." In addition, as the nation's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union
The Perpetual Union is a feature of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which established the United States of America as a political entity. Under modern American constitutional law this means that U.S. states are not permitted to ...
has also gained acceptance as a founding document. As a result, signers of three key documents are generally considered to be Founding Fathers of the United States: Declaration of Independence (DI), Articles of Confederation (AC), and U.S. Constitution (USC). The following table provides a list of these signers, some of whom signed more than one document.
Other delegates
The 55 delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention are referred to as framers. Of these, 16 failed to sign the document. Three refused, while the remainder left early, either in protest of the proceedings or for personal reasons. Nevertheless, some sources regard all framers as Founders, including those who did not sign:
*William Richardson Davie
William Richardson Davie (June 20, 1756 – November 29, 1820) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States, military officer during the Revolutionary War (United States), Revolutionary War, and List of Go ...
, North Carolina
*Oliver Ellsworth
Oliver Ellsworth (April 29, 1745 – November 26, 1807) was a Founding Father of the United States, attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator from Connecticut ...
, Connecticut
*Elbridge Gerry
Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 18 ...
, Massachusetts *
*William Houston
William Churchill Houston ( 1746 – August 12, 1788), a Founding Father of the United States, was a teacher, lawyer and statesman. Houston served as a delegate representing New Jersey in both the Continental Congress and Constitutional Conventi ...
, New Jersey
* William Houstoun, Georgia
* John Lansing, Jr., New York
* Alexander Martin, North Carolina
*Luther Martin
Luther Martin (February 20, 1748, New Brunswick, New Jersey – July 10, 1826, New York, New York) was a politician and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who left the Constitutional Convention early because he felt the Cons ...
, Maryland
*George Mason
George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including s ...
, Virginia *
*James McClurg
James McClurg (1746 – July 9, 1823) was an American physician and Founding Father who served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention which drafted the United States Constitution in 1787. McClurg served as the 18th, 21st, and 24th mayor of ...
, Virginia
*John Francis Mercer
John Francis Mercer (May 17, 1759 – August 30, 1821) was an American lawyer, planter, and politician from Virginia and Maryland, who served as Maryland's governor, as well as terms in the Continental Congress (representing Virginia), U.S. Hou ...
, Maryland
* William Pierce, Georgia
*Edmund Randolph
Edmund Jennings Randolph (August 10, 1753 September 12, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States, attorney, and the 7th Governor of Virginia. As a delegate from Virginia, he attended the Constitutional Convention and helped to create ...
, Virginia *
*Caleb Strong
Caleb Strong (January 9, 1745 – November 7, 1819) was an American lawyer, politician, and Founding Father who served as the sixth and tenth governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. He assisted in draft ...
, Massachusetts
*George Wythe
George Wythe (; December 3, 1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from ...
, Virginia
* Robert Yates, New York
(*) Randolph, Mason, and Gerry were the only three present at the Constitution's adoption who refused to sign.
Additional Founding Fathers
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:
* Ethan Allen
Ethan Allen ( – February 12, 1789) was an American farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, American Revolutionary War patriot, and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for ...
, military leader and founder of Vermont.[ Bernstein, 2009, p. 179]
* George Clinton, first governor of New York, 1777–1795, and fourth vice president of the US, 1805–1812.
* Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...
, gifted orator, known for his famous quote, " Give me liberty, or give me death!", served in the First Continental Congress in 1774 and briefly in the Second Congress in 1775 before returning to Virginia to lead its militia. He then held one-year terms as the first and sixth governor of Virginia, 1776–1779 and 1784–1786. Henry and Sam Adams were considered the most outspoken anti-federalists in opposing ratification of the Constitution, though neither participated in the Convention.
* Henry Knox
Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the ...
served as chief artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
officer in most of Washington's campaigns. His earliest achievement was the capture of over 50 pieces of artillery, primarily cannons, at New York's Fort Ticonderoga, one of the keys to Washington's capture of Boston in early 1776. Knox became the first Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
* Robert R. Livingston
Robert Robert Livingston (November 27, 1746 (Old Style November 16) – February 26, 1813) was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat from New York, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor", afte ...
, member of the Committee of Five
''
The Committee of Five of the Second Continental Congress was a group of five members who drafted and presented to the full Congress in Pennsylvania State House what would become the United States Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. Th ...
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 presidential oath of office at the First inauguration of George Washington
The first inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States was held on Thursday, April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, New York. The inauguration was held nearly two months after the begin ...
and with James Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...
as the minister to France.
* John Marshall
John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...
, fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1801–1835.[ Bernstein, 2009, p. 180]
* James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
, elected to the Virginia legislature (1782); member of the Second Continental Congress (1783–1786); fifth president of the United States for two terms (1817–1825); Negotiated the Louisiana Purchase along with Robert Livingston.
* Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
, author of ''Common Sense
''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political argu ...
'' and other influential pamphlets in the 1770s; sometimes referred to as "Father of the American Revolution".[ While John Adams strongly criticized Paine for failing to see the need for a separation of powers in government, ''Common Sense'' proved crucial in building support for independence following its publication in January 1776.
* ]Peyton Randolph
Peyton Randolph (September 10, 1721 – October 22, 1775) was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia' ...
, speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...
, president of the First Continental Congress, and a signer of the Continental Association.
* Paul Revere
Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to ale ...
, silversmith, member of the Sons of Liberty which staged the Boston Tea Party, and one of two horsemen in the midnight ride.
* Charles Thomson
Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson ...
, secretary of the Continental Congress from its formation to its final session, 1774–1789.
* Joseph Warren
Joseph Warren (June 11, 1741 – June 17, 1775), a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot movement in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution, ...
, respected physician and architect of the Revolutionary movement, known as the "Founding Martyr" for his death at the Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in ...
, drafted the Suffolk Resolves
The Suffolk Resolves was a declaration made on September 9, 1774, by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The declaration rejected the Massachusetts Government Act and resulted in a boycott of imported goods from Britain unless the In ...
in response to the Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure ...
.[ Cary, 1961, pp. viii, 19–20]
* "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a prominent army general during the Revolutionary War.[
]
Women
Historians also have come to recognize the roles women played in the nation's early development, using the term "Founding Mothers". Among the females honored in this respect are:
* Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; November 22, [ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, an ...
, wife, confidant, and advisor to John Adams, as well as second First Lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
; mother of sixth U.S. president John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
; famously extolled her husband to "remember the ladies" in shaping the new nation.
* Dolley Madison
Dolley Todd Madison (née Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of bo ...
, wife of fourth U.S. president James Madison; regarded as the most important First Lady of the 19th century, 1809–1817.
* Mercy Otis Warren
Mercy Otis Warren (September 14, eptember 25, New Style1728 – October 19, 1814) was an American activist poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. During the years before the Revolution, she had published poems and pla ...
, poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution.[
]
Other patriots
The following men and women also advanced the new nation through their actions, but are not necessarily regarded as founders:
* Richard Allen, African-American bishop, founder of the Free African Society The Free African Society, founded in 1787, was a benevolent organization that held religious services and provided mutual aid for "free Africans and their descendants" in Philadelphia. The Society was founded by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. It ...
and the African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...
* Crispus Attucks
Crispus Attucks ( – March 5, 1770) was an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent, commonly regarded as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre and thus the first American killed in the Amer ...
, believed to be of Native American and African descent, the first person killed in the Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre (known in Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain as the Incident on King Street) was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a crowd of three or four hu ...
of 1770 and thus the first to die in the American Revolution. Of the deaths at Boston John Adams would later write, "On that night the foundations of American independence was laid."
* John Bartram
John Bartram (March 23, 1699 – September 22, 1777) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and explorer, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for most of his career. Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus said he was the "greatest na ...
, botanist, horticulturist, and explorer
* Israel Bissell
Israel Bissell (1752 – October 24, 1823) was a patriot post rider in Massachusetts who brought news to American colonists of the British attack on Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. He reportedly rode for four days and six hours ...
, a patriot post rider
Post riders or postriders describes a horse and rider postal delivery system that existed at various times and various places throughout history. The term is usually reserved for instances where a network of regularly scheduled service was provid ...
in Massachusetts who rode the news to Philadelphia of the British attack on Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord ...
.
* Elias Boudinot
Elias Boudinot ( ; May 2, 1740 – October 24, 1821) was a lawyer and statesman from Elizabeth, New Jersey who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (more accurately referred to as the Congress of the Confederation) and served as Presiden ...
, New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
delegate to Continental Congress
* Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...
, vice president under Jefferson
* Cato, a Black Patriot
Black Patriots were African Americans who sided with the colonists who opposed British rule during the American Revolution. The term "Black Patriots" includes, but is not limited to, the 5,000 or more African Americans who served in the Continen ...
and slave who served as a spy alongside his owner, Hercules Mulligan
Hercules Mulligan (September 25, 1740March 4, 1825) was an Irish-American tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty.
Early life
Born in Coleraine in the north of Ireland to Hugh and Sarah Mulli ...
. 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
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
's life on at least two occasions. He was granted his freedom in 1778 for his service.
* Angelica Schuyler Church
Angelica Church (née Schuyler ; February 20, 1756 – March 6, 1814) was an American socialite. She was the eldest daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler, and a sister of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton and sister-in-law of Alexander ...
, sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, corresponded with many of the leading Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and the Marquis de Lafayette.
* George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Ame ...
, army general, nicknamed "Conqueror of the Old Northwest".
* Tench Coxe
Tench Coxe (May 22, 1755July 17, 1824) was an American political economist and a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress in 1788–1789. He wrote under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian," and was known to his political enemies as ...
, economist in the Continental Congress
* Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan– American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years ...
, politician and treasury secretary[ Dungan, Nicholas, 2010]
* Horatio Gates
Horatio Lloyd Gates (July 26, 1727April 10, 1806) was a British-born American army officer who served as a general in the Continental Army during the early years of the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory in the Battles ...
, army general. Present at the Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion ...
, whose victory was the turning point of the Revolutionary War
* Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependabl ...
, Revolutionary War general; commanded the southern theater
* Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was an American Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured b ...
, captured U.S. soldier, executed in 1776 for spying on British in New York
* Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton
Elizabeth Hamilton (née Schuyler ; August 9, 1757 – November 9, 1854), also called Eliza or Betsey, was an American socialite and philanthropist. Married to American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, she was a defender of his works and co- ...
, wife of Alexander Hamilton
* Esek Hopkins
Esek Hopkins (April 26, 1718February 26, 1802) was an American naval officer, merchant captain, and privateer. Achieving the rank of Commodore, Hopkins was the only Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War ...
, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy
The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War and was founded October 13, 1775. The fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron John Adams ...
* James Iredell
James Iredell (October 5, 1751 – October 20, 1799) was one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President George Washington and served from 1790 until his death in 1799. His son, James Iredel ...
, essayist for independence and advocate for the constitution, one of the first Supreme Court justices.[
* ]John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...
, U.S. navy captain. Commander of USS ''Bonhomme Richard''; when asked to surrender by the British he uttered his famous cry, "I have not yet begun to fight".
* Tadeusz Kościuszko
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko ( be, Andréj Tadévuš Banavientúra Kasciúška, en, Andrew Thaddeus Bonaventure Kosciuszko; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish Military engineering, military engineer, statesman, an ...
, American general, former Polish army general[
* ]Bernardo de Galvez
Bernardo is a given name and less frequently an Italian, Portuguese and Spanish surname. Possibly from the Germanic "Bernhard".
Given name People
* Bernardo the Japanese (died 1557), early Japanese Christian convert and disciple of Saint Fran ...
, Spanish military, governor of Spanish Louisiana. Captured Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile, all in British West Florida.
* Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemasonry, freemason and military officer who fought in the Ameri ...
, French Marquis who became a Continental Army general. Served without pay, brought a ship to America, outfitted for war, provided clothing and other provisions for the patriot cause, all at his own expense.
* John Laurance
John Laurance (sometimes spelled "Lawrence" or "Laurence") (1750 – November 11, 1810) was a delegate to the 6th, 7th, and 8th Congresses of the Confederation, a United States representative and United States Senator from New York and a United ...
, New York politician and judge who served as Judge advocate general during the Revolution.
* Henry Lee III
Henry Lee III (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was an early American Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot and U.S. politician who served as the ninth Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia United States House of Representatives, Repres ...
, army officer and Virginia governor[ Buchanan, 2007, pp. 522–524]
* William Maclay, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
politician and U.S. senator[
* ]Philip Mazzei
Filippo Mazzei (, but sometimes erroneously cited with the name of Philip Mazzie; Poggio a Caiano, December 25, 1730 – Pisa, March 19, 1816) was an Italian physician, winemaker, and arms dealer. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson, Mazzei acted ...
, Italian physician, merchant, and author
* Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan (1735–1736July 6, 1802) was an American pioneer, soldier, and politician from Virginia. One of the most respected battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, he later commanded troops during the sup ...
, military leader and Virginia congressman
* Hercules Mulligan
Hercules Mulligan (September 25, 1740March 4, 1825) was an Irish-American tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War. He was a member of the Sons of Liberty.
Early life
Born in Coleraine in the north of Ireland to Hugh and Sarah Mulli ...
, Irish-American tailor and spy, member of the Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...
. Introduced Alexander Hamilton into New York society and helped him recruit men for his artillery units.
* Samuel Nicholas
Samuel Nicholas (1744 – 27 August 1790) was the first officer commissioned in the United States Continental Marines (predecessor to the United States Marine Corps) and by tradition is considered to be the first Commandant of the Marine Corps ...
, commander-in-chief of the Continental Marines
The Continental Marines were the Amphibious warfare, amphibious infantry of the Thirteen Colonies, American Colonies (and later the United States) during the American Revolutionary War. The Corps was formed by the Continental Congress on Novem ...
* James Otis Jr.
James Otis Jr. (February 5, 1725 – May 23, 1783) was an American lawyer, political activist, colonial legislator, and early supporter of patriotic causes in Massachusetts at the beginning of the Revolutionary Era. Otis was a fervent opponent ...
, one of the earliest proponents of patriotic causes, an opponent of slavery, and leader of Massachusetts' Committee of Correspondence, all in the 1760s.
* Andrew Pickens, army general and South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
congressman
* Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering (July 17, 1745January 29, 1829) was the third United States Secretary of State under Presidents George Washington and John Adams. He also represented Massachusetts in both houses of Congress as a member of the Federalist Party. ...
, Secretary of War, U.S. secretary of state
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
, from Massachusetts. Fired by President John Adams; replaced by John Marshall.
* Oliver Pollock
Oliver Pollock (1737, Bready, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland – December 17, 1823, Pinckneyville, Mississippi) was a merchant and financier of the American Revolutionary War, of which he has long been considered a historically undervalued fi ...
, a merchant, diplomat, and financier of the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
* Israel Putnam
Israel Putnam (January 7, 1718 – May 29, 1790), popularly known as "Old Put", was an American military officer and landowner who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). He als ...
, army general[Raphael, Ray. ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Founding Fathers And the Birth of Our Nation'' (Penguin, 2011).]
* Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau
Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807, was a French nobleman and general whose army played the decisive role in helping the United States defeat the British army at Yorktown in 1781 during the ...
, French army general[
* John Rogers, Maryland lawyer and judge, delegate to the ]Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
who voted for the Declaration of Independence but fell ill before he could sign it.
* Philip Schuyler
Philip John Schuyler (; November 18, 1804) was an American general in the Revolutionary War and a United States Senator from New York. He is usually known as Philip Schuyler, while his son is usually known as Philip J. Schuyler.
Born in Alba ...
, Revolutionary War general, U.S. senator from New York, father of the Schuyler sisters.
* Haym Solomon
Haym Salomon (also Solomon; anglicized from Chaim Salomon; April 7, 1740 – January 6, 1785) was a Polish-born Jewish businessman and political financial broker who assisted the Superintendent of Finance, English-born Robert Morris, as the prim ...
, financier and spy for the Continental Army
* Arthur St. Clair, major general, president of the Confederation Congress
The president of the United States in Congress Assembled, known unofficially as the president of the Continental Congress and later as the president of the Congress of the Confederation, was the presiding officer of the Continental Congress, the ...
, and later first governor of the Northwest Territory
* Thomas Sumter
Thomas Sumter (August 14, 1734June 1, 1832) was a soldier in the Colony of Virginia militia; a brigadier general in the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution, a planter, and a politician. After the United States gained independen ...
, South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
military leader, and member of both houses of Congress
* Richard Varick
Richard Varick (March 15, 1753 – July 30, 1831) was an American lawyer, military officer, and politician who has been referred to as "The Forgotten Founding Father." A major figure in the development of post-Independence New York City and Stat ...
, private secretary to George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
, recorder of New York City (1786); Speaker of the New York Assembly (1787); second attorney general of New York state
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
(1788–1789); Mayor of New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
(1789–1801); founder of the American Bible Society
American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...
(1828)
* Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben (born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin Louis von Steuben; September 17, 1730 – November 28, 1794), also referred to as Baron von Steuben (), was a Prussian military officer who p ...
, Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
officer;[ Inspector General of Continental Army; Present at Valley forge with Washington, training militia.
* ]Noah Webster
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...
, political writer, lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
, educator. Author of the first English Dictionary containing numerous references to Washington and the revolution.
* Thomas Willing
Thomas Willing (December 19, 1731 – January 19, 1821) was an American merchant, politician and slave trader who served as mayor of Philadelphia and was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress. He also served as the first presi ...
, delegate to the Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
from Pennsylvania, the first president of the Bank of North America
The Bank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's first ''de facto'' central bank. Chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 17 ...
, and the first president of the First Bank of the United States
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
* Henry Wisner
Henry Wisner (c. 1720 – March 4, 1790) was a miller from Goshen, New York. He was a Patriot leader during the American Revolution who voted for Independence on July 4, 1776, at the creation of the Declaration of Independence, and represented Ne ...
, New York Continental Congress delegate who voted for the Declaration of Independence but left Philadelphia before the signing.
The colonies unite (1765–1774)
In the mid-1760s, Parliament began levying taxes on the colonies to finance Britain's debts from the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
, a decade-long conflict that ended in 1763. Opposition to Stamp Act and Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts () or Townshend Duties, were a series of British acts of Parliament passed during 1767 and 1768 introducing a series of taxes and regulations to fund administration of the British colonies in America. They are named after the ...
united the colonies in a common cause.[ Chaffin, 1991, p. 132.] 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 Tea Act 1773 (13 Geo 3 c 44) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. The principal objective was to reduce the massive amount of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help th ...
. The new tea tax, along with stricter customs enforcement, was not well-received across the colonies, particularly in Massachusetts.[ Carp, 2010, pp. 193–195]
On December 16, 1773, 150 colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians
The Mohawk people ( moh, Kanienʼkehá꞉ka) are the most easterly section of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. They are an Iroquoian-speaking Indigenous people of North America, with communities in southeastern Canada and northern Ne ...
, 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
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...
. Orchestrated by Samuel Adams and the Boston Committee of Correspondence
The committees of correspondence were, prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a collection of American political organizations that sought to coordinate opposition to British Parliament and, later, support for American independe ...
, the protest was viewed as treasonous by British authorities.[ Andrilk, 2012, pp. 98–99] 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.[
Intent on responding to the Acts, twelve of the ]Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
agreed to send delegates to meet in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. It met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the British Navy ...
, with Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
declining because it needed British military support in its conflict with native tribes. 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.
Continental Congress (1774–1775)
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
The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure ...
, 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. 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.
First Continental Congress (1774)
The First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. It met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the British Navy ...
convened at Philadelphia's Carpenter's Hall
Carpenters' Hall is the official birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a key meeting place in the early history of the United States. Carpenters' Hall is located in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...
on September 5, 1774. 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
Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and ...
of Massachusetts; John Jay of New York; John Dickinson
John Dickinson (November 13 Julian_calendar">/nowiki>Julian_calendar_November_2.html" ;"title="Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar">/nowiki>Julian calendar November 2">Julian_calendar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Julian calendar" ...
of Pennsylvania; and Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...
of Connecticut. Peyton Randolph
Peyton Randolph (September 10, 1721 – October 22, 1775) was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia' ...
of Virginia was unanimously elected its first president.[ Mount Vernon, Peyton Randolph, Essay]
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
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...
, 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
The Suffolk Resolves was a declaration made on September 9, 1774, by the leaders of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The declaration rejected the Massachusetts Government Act and resulted in a boycott of imported goods from Britain unless the In ...
, which had just been approved at a town meeting in Milton, Massachusetts
Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller. ...
.[ Suffolk, 1973, pp. 21–34] Joseph Warren, chairman of the Resolves drafting committee, had dispatched Paul Revere
Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to ale ...
to deliver signed copies to the Congress in Philadelphia. The Resolves called for the ouster of British officials, a trade embargo of British goods, and the formation of a militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
throughout the colonies.[ 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.
The delegates then approved a series of measures, including a ]Petition to the King
The Petition to the King was a petition sent to King George III by the First Continental Congress in 1774, calling for repeal of the Intolerable Acts.
Political background
Following the end of the French and Indian War (the North American the ...
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
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...
. The declaration asserted the rights of colonists and outlined Parliament's abuses of power. Proposed by Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from ...
, it also included a trade boycott known as the Continental Association
The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the American colonies adopted by the First Continental Congress on October 20, 1774. It called for a trade boycott against ...
. The Association, a crucial step toward unification, empowered committees of correspondence
The committees of correspondence were, prior to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, a collection of American political organizations that sought to coordinate opposition to British Parliament and, later, support for American independe ...
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
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
and his administration under Lord North
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 17325 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was 12th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most o ...
that the colonies were in a state of rebellion.
Lord Dartmouth
Earl of Dartmouth is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth, William Legge, 2nd Baron Dartmouth.
History
The Legge family descended from Edward Legge, Vice-President of Munster. ...
, the Secretary of State for the Colonies
The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies.
Histor ...
who had been sympathetic to the Americans, condemned the newly established Congress for what he considered its illegal formation and actions. 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 of Boston. The letter took several months to reach Gage, who acted immediately by sending out 700 army regulars. During their march to Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, 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
William Dawes Jr. (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was one of several men who in April 1775 alerted colonial minutemen in Massachusetts of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the outse ...
. Even though it is unknown who fired the first shot, the Revolutionary War began.
Second Continental Congress (1775)
On May 10, 1775, less than three weeks after the Battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...
convened in the Pennsylvania State House
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts.
It ...
. The gathering essentially reconstituted the First Congress with many of the same delegates in attendance. Among the new arrivals were Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
of Pennsylvania, John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...
of Massachusetts, and in June, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
of Virginia. Hancock was elected president two weeks into the session when Peyton Randolph was recalled to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...
as speaker, and Jefferson was named to replace him in the Virginia delegation. After adopting the rules of debate from the previous year and reinforcing its emphasis on secrecy, the Congress turned to its foremost concern, the defense of the colonies.
The provincial assembly in Massachusetts, which had declared the colony's governorship vacant, reached out to the Congress for direction on two matters: whether the assembly could assume the powers of civil government and whether the Congress would take over the army being formed in Boston. In answer to the first question, on June 9 the colony's leaders were directed to chose a council to govern within the spirit of the colony's charter. As for the second, Congress spent several days discussing plans for guiding the forces of all thirteen colonies. Finally, on June 14 Congress approved provisioning the New England militias, agreed to send ten companies of riflemen from other colonies as reinforcements, and appointed a committee to draft rules for governing the military, thus establishing the Continental Army
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...
. The next day, Samuel and John Adams nominated Washington as commander-in-chief, a motion that was unanimously approved.[ Andrilk, 2012, p. 132][ Chernow, 2010, pp. 185–187] Two days later, on June 17, the militias clashed with British forces at Bunker Hill, a victory for Britain but a costly one.
The Congress's actions came despite the divide between conservatives who still hoped for reconciliation with England and at the other end of the spectrum, those who favored independence. To satisfy the former, Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition on July 5, an appeal for peace to King George III written by John Dickinson. Then, the following day, it approved the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, a resolution justifying military action.[ The declaration, intended for Washington to read to the troops upon his arrival in Massachusetts, was drafted by Jefferson but edited by Dickinson who thought its language too strong. When the Olive Branch Petition arrived in London in September, the king refused to look at it. By then, he had already issued a Proclamation of Rebellion, proclamation declaring the American colonies in rebellion.
]
Declaration of Independence (1776)
Under the auspices of the Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...
and its Committee of Five
''
The Committee of Five of the Second Continental Congress was a group of five members who drafted and presented to the full Congress in Pennsylvania State House what would become the United States Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. Th ...
, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
. It was presented to the Congress by the Committee on June 28,[#maier1998, Maier, 1998, p. 131] and after much debate and editing of the document, on July 2, 1776, Congress passed the Lee Resolution, which declared the United Colonies independent from Great Britain. Two days later, on July 4, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The name "United States of America", which first appeared in the Declaration, was formally approved by the Congress on September 9, 1776.
In an effort to get this important document promptly into the public realm John Hancock
John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...
, president of the Second Continental Congress, commissioned John Dunlap, editor and printer of the ''Pennsylvania Packet'', to print 200 Broadside (printing), 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 colonies/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.[
]
Fighting for independence
While the colonists were fighting the British to gain independence their newly formed government, with its Articles of Confederation, were put to the test, revealing the shortcomings and weaknesses of America's first Constitution. During this time Washington became convinced that a strong federal government was urgently needed, as the individual states were not meeting the organizational and supply demands of the war on their own individual accord. Key precipitating events included the Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...
in 1773, Paul Revere's Ride in 1775, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. George Washington's George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, crossing of the Delaware River was a major American victory over Hessian (soldier), Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton and greatly boosted American morale. The Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion ...
and the Siege of Yorktown, which primarily ended the fighting between American and British, were also pivotal events during the war. The Treaty of Paris (1783), 1783 Treaty of Paris marked the official end of the war.
After the war Washington was instrumental in organizing the effort to create a "national militia" made up of individual state units, and under the direction of the Federal government. He also endorsed the creation of a military academy to train artillery offices and engineers. Not wanting to leave the country disarmed and vulnerable so soon after the war, Washington favored a peacetime army of 2600 men. He also favored the creation of a navy that could repel any European intruders. He approached Henry Knox, who accompanied Washington during most of his campaigns, with the prospect of becoming the future Secretary of War.
Treaty of Paris
After Washington's final victory at the Siege of Yorktown, surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, more than a year passed before official negotiations for peace commenced and ultimately a treaty was adopted. The Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France:
Treaties
1200s and 1300s
* Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade
* Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France
* Trea ...
was drafted in November 1782, and negotiations began in April 1783, continued through the summer, and the completed treaty was signed on September 3. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens represented the United States, and David Hartley (the Younger), David Hartley, a member of Parliament, and Richard Oswald, a prominent and influential Scotish businessman, represented Great Britain. While in France, Franklin, who had a long established rapport with the French, and was almost entirely responsible for securing an alliance with them during the war, was greeted with high honors from the French council, while the others received due accommodations but were generally considered to be amateur negotiators. Communications between Britain and France was largely effected through Franklin and William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, Lord Shelburne who was on good terms with Franklin. Franklin, Adams and Jay understood the concerns of the French at this uncertain juncture and, using that to their advantage, in the final sessions of negotiations convinced both the French and the British that American independence was in their best interests.
Constitutional Convention
Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation had no power to collect taxes, regulate commerce, or pay the national debt. Key leaders–George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and others–began fearing for the young nation’s fate. As the Articles' weaknesses became more and more apparent, the idea of creating a strong central government gained support, leading to the call for a convention to amend the Articles.
The Philadelphia Convention, Constitutional Convention met in the Pennsylvania State House from May 14 through September 17, 1787. The 55 delegates in attendance represented a cross-section of 18th-century American leadership. The vast majority were well-educated and prosperous, and all were prominent in their respective states. Many delegates were late to arrive, and after a few days' delay, a quorum was finally present on May 25 to elect Washington, the nation's most trusted figure, as convention president. Four days later, on May 29, the convention adopted a rule of secrecy, a controversial decision but a common practice that allowed delegates to speak freely.
Virginia and New Jersey plans
Immediately following the secrecy vote, Virginia governor Edmund Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan, fifteen resolutions written by Madison proposing a government of three branches: a single executive, a bicameralism, bicameral (two-house) legislature, and a judiciary. The lower house was to be elected by the people, with seats apportioned by state population. The upper house would be chosen by the lower house from delegates nominated by state legislatures. The executive, who would have veto power over legislation, would be elected by the Congress, which could overrule state laws. While the plan exceeded the convention's objective of merely amending the Articles, most delegates were willing to abandon their original mandate in favor of crafting a new form of government.
Discussions of the Virginia resolutions continued into mid-June, when William Paterson of New Jersey presented an alternative proposal. The New Jersey Plan retained most of the Articles' provisions, including a one-house legislature and equal power for the states. One of the plan's innovations was a "plural" executive branch, but its primary concession was to allow the national government to regulate trade and commerce. Meeting as a committee of the whole, the delegates discussed the two proposals beginning with the question of whether there should be a single or three-fold executive and then whether to grant the executive veto power. After agreeing on a single executive who could veto legislation, the delegates turned to an even more contentious issue, legislative representation. Larger states favored proportional representation based on population, while smaller states wanted each state to have the same number of legislators.
Connecticut Compromise
By mid-July, the debates between the large-state and small-state factions had reached an impasse. With the convention on the verge of collapse, Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...
of Connecticut introduced what became known as the Connecticut Compromise. Sherman's proposal called for a House of Representatives elected proportionally and a Senate where all states would have the same number of seats. On July 16, the compromise was approved by the narrowest of margins, 5 states to 4.
The proceedings left most delegates with reservations.[#beeman2009, Beeman, 2009, pp. 362-363] Several went home early in protest, believing the convention was overstepping its authority. Others were concerned about the lack of a Bill of Rights safeguarding individual liberties. Even Madison, the Constitution's chief architect, was dissatisfied, particularly over equal representation in the Senate and the failure to grant Congress the power to veto state legislation. Misgivings aside, a final draft was approved overwhelmingly on September 17, with 11 states in favor and New York unable to vote since it had only one delegate remaining, Hamilton. Rhode Island, which was in a dispute over the state's paper currency, had refused to send anyone to the convention. Of the 42 delegates present, only three refused to sign: Randolph and George Mason, both of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.[
]
State ratification conventions
The Constitution faced one more hurdle: approval by the legislatures in at least nine of the 13 states. Within three days of the signing, the draft was submitted to the Congress of the Confederation, which forwarded the document to the states for ratification. In November, Pennsylvania's legislature convened the first of the conventions. Before it could vote, Delaware became the first state to ratify, approving the Constitution on December 7 by a 30-0 margin. Pennsylvania followed suit five days later, splitting its vote 46-23. Despite unanimous votes in New Jersey and Georgia, several key states appeared to be leaning against ratification because of the omission of a Bill of Rights, particularly Virginia where the opposition was led by Mason and Patrick Henry, who had refused to participate in the convention claiming he "smelt a rat". Rather than risk everything, the Federalists relented, promising that if the Constitution was adopted, amendments would be added to secure people's rights.
Over the next year, the string of ratifications continued. Finally, on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify, making the Constitution the law of the land. Virginia followed suit four days later, and New York did the same in late July. After North Carolina's assent in November, another year-and-a-half would pass before the 13th state would weigh in. Facing trade sanctions and the possibility of being forced out of the union, Rhode Island approved the Constitution on May 29, 1790 by a begrudging 34-32 vote.
New form of government
The Constitution officially took effect on , when the House and Senate met for their first sessions. On April 30, Washington was sworn in as the nation's first president. Ten amendments, known collectively as the United States Bill of Rights, were ratified on December 15, 1791. Because the delegates were sworn to secrecy rule, Madison's notes on the ratification were not published until after his death in 1836.
Bill of Rights
The Constitution, as drafted, was sharply criticized by the Anti-Federalists, a group that contended the document failed to safeguard individual liberties from the federal government. Leading Anti-Federalists included Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, both from Virginia, and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts. Delegates at the Constitutional Convention who shared their views were Virginians George Mason and Edmund Randolph and Massachusetts representative Elbridge Gerry, all of whom refused to sign the final document. Henry, who derived his hatred of a central governing authority from his Scottish ancestry, did all in his power to defeat the Constitution, opposing Madison every step of the way.
The criticisms are what led to the amendments proposed under the Bill of Rights. Madison, the bill's principal author, was originally opposed to the amendments, but was influenced by the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, primarily written by Mason, and the Declaration of Independence, by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, while in France, shared Henry's and Mason's fears about a strong central government, especially the president's power, but because of his friendship with Madison and the pending Bill of Rights, he quieted his concerns. Alexander Hamilton, however, was opposed to a Bill of Rights believing the amendments not only unnecessary but dangerous:
Why declare things shall not be done, which there is no power to do ... that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?
Madison had no way of knowing the debate between Virginia's two legislative houses would delay the adoption of the amendments for more than two years.[#labunski2006, Labunski, 2006, p. 240, 253] The final draft, referred to the states by the federal Congress on September 25, 1789, was not ratified by Virginia's Senate until December 15, 1791.
The Bill of Rights drew its authority from the consent of the people and held that,
Madison came to be recognized as the founding era's foremost proponent of religious liberty, free speech, and freedom of the press.
Ascending to the presidency
The first five List of presidents of the United States#Presidents, U.S. presidents are regarded as Founding Fathers for their active participation in the American Revolution: Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. They all previously served as List of delegates to the Continental Congress, delegates in the Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...
.
Demographics and other characteristics
The Founding Fathers represented the upper echelon of political leadership in the British colonies during the latter half of the 18th century. All were leaders in their communities and respective colonies who were willing to assume responsibility for public affairs.
Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and U.S. Constitution, nearly all were native born and of British heritage, including Scots, Irish, and Welsh. Nearly half were lawyers, while the remainder were primarily businessmen and planter-farmers. The average age of the founders was 43. Benjamin Franklin, born in 1706, was the oldest, while only a few were born after 1750 and thus were in their 20s.
The following sections discuss these and other demographic topics in greater detail. For the most part, the information is confined to signers/delegates associated with the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution.
Political experience
All of the Founding Fathers had extensive political experience at the national and state levels. As just one example, the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation were members of Second Continental Congress, while four-fifths of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention had served in the Congress either during or prior to the convention. The remaining fifth attending the convention were recognized as leaders in the state assemblies that appointed them.
Following are brief profiles of the political backgrounds of some of the more notable founders:
* John Adams began his political career as a town council member in Braintree, Massachusetts, Braintree outside Boston. He came to wider attention following a series of essays he wrote during the Stamp Act crisis of 1765. In 1770, he was elected to the Massachusetts General Assembly, went on to lead Boston's Committee of Correspondence, and in 1774, was elected to the Continental Congress. Two decades later, Adams would become the second president of the nation he helped found.
* John Dickinson was one of the leaders of the Pennsylvania Assembly during the 1770s. As a member of the First and Second Continental Congress, he wrote two petitions for the Congress to King George III seeking a peaceful solution. Dickinson opposed independence and refused to sign the Declaration of Independence, but served as an officer in the militia and wrote the initial draft of the Articles of Confederation. In the 1780s, he served as List of governors of Pennsylvania, president of Pennsylvania and List of governors of Delaware, president of Delaware
* Benjamin Franklin retired from his business activities in 1747 and was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751. He was sent to London in 1757 for the first of two diplomatic missions on behalf of the colony. Upon returning from England in 1775, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress. After signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he was appointed Minister to France and then Sweden, and in 1783 helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris. Franklin was List of governors of Pennsylvania, governor of Pennsylvania from 1785 to 1788 and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
* John Jay was a New York delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress and in 1778 was elected President of the Continental Congress, Congress president. In 1782, he was summoned to Paris by Franklin to help negotiate the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain. As a supporter of the proposed Constitution, he wrote five of the Federalist Papers and became the first Chief Justice of the United States, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court following the Constitution's adoption. Minister to Spain[#jillson2004, Jillson & Wilson, 1994, p. 77]
* Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
was a delegate from Virginia to the Second Continental Congress (1775–1776) and was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. He was elected the List of governors of Virginia, second governor of Virginia (1779–1781) and served as Minister to France (1785–1789).
* Robert Morris had been a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly and president of Pennsylvania's Committees of safety (American Revolution), Committee of Safety. He was also a member of the Committee of Secret Correspondence and member of the Second Continental Congress.
* Roger Sherman had served in the First and Second Continental Congresses, Connecticut House of Representatives and Justice of the Peace.
Education
More than a third of the Founding Fathers attended or graduated from colleges in the American colonies, while additional founders attended college abroad, primarily in England and Scotland. All other founders either were home schooled, received tutoring, completed apprenticeships, or were self-educated.
American colleges
Following is a listing of founders who graduated from six of the nine colleges established in the Americas during the Colonial Era. A few founders, such as Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe, attended college but did not graduate. The other three colonial colleges, all founded in the 1760s, included Brown University (originally College of Rhode Island), Dartmouth College, and Rutgers University (originally Queen's College).
* College of William & Mary: Thomas Jefferson, John Blair, Jr., James McClurg, James Francis Mercer, Edmund Randolph,
* Columbia University (originally King's College): John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Gouverneur Morris,
* Harvard University (originally Harvard College): John Adams, Samuel Adams, Francis Dana, William Ellery, Elbridge Gerry, John Hancock, William Hooper, William Samuel Johnson (also Yale), Rufus King, James Lovell, Robert Treat Paine, Caleb Strong, Joseph Warren, John Wentworth Jr., William Williams.
* Princeton University (originally The College of New Jersey): Gunning Bedford, Jr., William Richardson Davie, Jonathan Dayton, Oliver Ellsworth, Joseph Hewes, William Houstoun, Richard Hutson, James Madison, Alexander Martin, Luther Martin, William Paterson, Joseph Reed, Benjamin Rush, Nathaniel Scudder, Jonathan Bayard Smith, Richard Stockton
* University of Pennsylvania (originally Academy and College of Philadelphia, College of Philadelphia): Francis Hopkinson, Henry Marchant, Thomas Mifflin, William Paca, Hugh Williamson
* Yale University (originally Yale College): Andrew Adams, Abraham Baldwin, Lyman Hall, Titus Hosmer, Jared Ingersoll, William Samuel Johnson (also Harvard), Philip Livingston, William Livingston, Lewis Morris, Oliver Wolcott
United Kingdom colleges
Following are founders who graduated from colleges in Great Britain:
* Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London offering legal studies for admission to the English Bar. William Houstoun, William Paca (also University of Pennsylvania graduate)
* Middle Temple, also one of the four Inns of Court: John Banister, John Blair, John Dickinson, Thomas Heyward, Jr.,[#NCReview1, The North Carolina Review, p. 279] Thomas Lynch, Jr. (also University of Cambridge graduate), John Matthews, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,[#NCReview1, The North Carolina Review, p. 280] Peyton Randolph, John Rutledge
* University of Cambridge, England: Thomas Lynch, Jr. (also Middle Temple graduate), Thomas Nelson, Jr.
* University of Edinburgh, Scotland: John Witherspoon
Ethnicity
The greater majority of founders were natives of the American Colonies, while just nineteen were born in other parts of the British Empire#"First" British Empire (1583–1783), British Empire.
* England: William Richardson Davie, William Duer, Button Gwinnett, Robert Morris, Thomas Paine,
* Ireland: Pierce Butler,[#malone3, Dictionary of American biography, 1932, v. 3, pp. 364–365] Thomas Fitzsimons,[#malone7, Dictionary of American biography, 1932, v. 6, p. 444] James McHenry,[#malone18, Dictionary of American biography, 1932, v. 18, pp. 324–325] William Paterson, James Smith, George Taylor, Charles Thomson, Matthew Thornton
* Scotland: Edward Telfair, James Wilson, John Witherspoon
* Wales: Francis Lewis
* West Indies: Alexander Hamilton, Daniel Roberdeau
Occupations
While the Founding Fathers were engaged in a broad range of occupations, the greater majority had careers in three professions: about half the founders were lawyers, a sixth were planters/farmers, another sixth were merchants/businessmen, and the others were spread across miscellaneous professions.
* Ten founders were physicians: Josiah Bartlett, Lyman Hall, Samuel Holten, James McClurg, James McHenry (surgeon), Benjamin Rush, Nathaniel Scudder, Matthew Thornton, Joseph Warren, and Hugh Williamson.
* John Witherspoon was the only minister, although Lyman Hall had been a preacher prior to becoming a physician.
* George Washington, a Virginia planter, was a land surveyor before becoming a colonel in the Virginia Regiment.
* Benjamin Franklin was a successful printer and publisher and an accomplished scientist and inventor, in Philadelphia. Franklin retired at age 42 to focus first on scientific pursuits and then politics and diplomacy, serving as a member of the Continental Congress, first postmaster general, minister to Great Britain, France, and Sweden, and governor of Pennsylvania.[#isaacson, Isaacson, 2004, pp. 127–128, 176, 206–209, 291, 325, 382]
Religion
Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 28 were Anglicanism, Anglicans (i.e. Church of England; or Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), 21 were other Protestantism, Protestant, and three were Roman Catholic (Daniel Carroll and Fitzsimons; Charles Carroll was Roman Catholic but was not a Constitution signatory). Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, eight were Presbyterianism, Presbyterians, seven were Congregational church, Congregationalists, two were Lutheranism, Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed Church, Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodism, Methodists. A few prominent Founding Fathers were Anti-clericalism, anti-clerical, notably Jefferson. Historian Gregg L. Frazer argues that the leading Founders (John Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Wilson, Morris, Madison, Hamilton, and Washington) were neither Christians nor Deism, Deists, but rather supporters of a hybrid "theistic rationalism". 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.
Founders on currency and postage
Four U.S. Founders are minted on American currency—Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
, Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
, and George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
; Washington and Jefferson both appear on three different denominations.
Cultural impact (1843–present)
Holidays
Independence Day (United States), Independence Day (colloquially called the ''Fourth of July'') is a United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
national holiday celebrated yearly on July 4 to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the nation. President's Day, Washington's Birthday is also observed as a national federal holiday, and is also known as ''Presidents' Day''.
Institutions
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.
Media and theater
The Founding Fathers were portrayed in the Tony Award–winning 1969 musical 1776 (musical), ''1776'', which depicted the debates over, and eventual adoption of, the Declaration of Independence. The stage production was adapted into the 1776 (film), 1972 film of the same name. The 1989 film ''A More Perfect Union (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 (miniseries)#Part II: Independence (1774–1776), John Adams'' and the third episode of the 2015 miniseries ''Sons of Liberty (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 (miniseries), Washington'', and in List of films about the American Revolution, many other films and List of television series and miniseries about the American Revolution, television portrayals.
Several Founding Fathers, Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison—were reimagined in Hamilton (musical), ''Hamilton'', a 2015 Musical theater, musical inspired by Ron Chernow's 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton (book), ''Alexander Hamilton'', with music, lyrics and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The musical won eleven Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Sports
Several major professional sports teams in the Northeastern United States whose names pay homage to events, monuments, and ideals related to the founding:
* New England Patriots (men's American football)
* New England Revolution (men's soccer)
* New York Liberty (women's basketball)
* Philadelphia 76ers (men's basketball)
* Washington Capitals (men's ice hockey)
* Washington Nationals (men's baseball)
Religious freedom
Religious persecution had existed for centuries around the world and it existed in colonial America.[#gelfand1969, Gelfand, 1969, pp. 7-8] Founders such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry and James Mason first established a measure of religious freedom in Virginia in 1776 with the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which became the model for religious liberty for the nation.[#gelfand1969, Gelfand, 1969, p. 34, 37] The Baptists, Presbyterians and the Lutherans had been for a decade prior petitioning against the Church of England, established church of England for religious liberties. Jefferson had left the Continental Congress to return to Virginia to join the fight for religious freedom, which proved difficult, as many members of the Virginia legislature belonged to the established church. While he was not completely successful, Jefferson managed to have the laws which punished those with different religious beliefs repealed.[#meacham2012, Meacham, 2012, p. 123] Jefferson was also the architect for Separation of church and state in the United States, separation of Church and State, was opposed to the use of public funds to support the established church and thought it unwise to link civil rights to religious doctrine.[ Freedom of religion, along with freedom of speech, ultimately became the law of the nation. The first statement in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution proclaims the right to Freedom of religion in the United States, Freedom of Religion, and became part of the Bill of Rights which was adopted in 1791.][ Washington was a firm believer of religious freedom, and once assured Virginia Baptists, worried that the Constitution as framed might not protect their religious liberties, said that, "... certainly, I would never have placed my signature to it." Along with Christians, Jews also viewed Washington as a champion of freedom, and also sought his assurances that they would enjoy complete religious freedom. Washington responded by declaring America’s revolution in religion stood as an example for the rest of the world.
]
Slavery
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".[Annette Gordon-Reed, ''Engaging Jefferson: Blacks and the Founding Father'', The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan. 2000), pp. 171–182] 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 in the United States, 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. 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 (American Revolution), Patriot involvement in slave trading.
Franklin, though he was a key founder of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society,[#wright2002, Wright, 2002] originally owned slaves whom he later Manumission, 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. Jefferson say's "In 1769, I became a member of the legislature…. I made one effort in that body for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected", but the representatives of the Crown sought "to direct our labors in subservience to [the mother country's] interest…. and… the Royal negative closed the last door to every hope of amelioration." 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, although he did negotiate slave transactions for his wife's family, the Schuyler family, Schuylers. Many of the Founding Fathers never owned slaves, including John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Paine.
Slavery in the United States, Slaves and slavery are mentioned only indirectly in the 1787 Constitution. For example, Three-fifths Compromise, 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 United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives and direct taxes. Additionally, in Fugitive Slave Clause, Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, slaves are referred to as "persons held in service or labor".[#freehling1972, Freehling, 1972, p. 85] 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. In 1782, Virginia passed a manumission law that allowed slave owners to free their slaves by will or deed.[#cambridge2008, Cambridge History of Law, 2008, p. 278] As a result, thousands of slaves were manumitted in Virginia.[ 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 Atlantic slave trade, 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.][
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Scholarly analysis
Historians who wrote about the American Revolutionary era and the founding of the United States government now number in the thousands, and whose inclusion would go well beyond the scope of this article. Some of the most prominent ones, however, are listed below. While most scholarly works maintain overall objectivity, historian Arthur H. Shaffer notes that many of the early works about the American Revolution often express a national bias, or anti-bias, but maintains that this bias lends a direct insight into the minds of the founders and their adversaries respectively. He notes that any bias is the product of a national interest and prevailing political mood, and as such cannot be dismissed as having no historic value for the modern historian. Conversely, various modern accounts of history contain anachronisms, modern day ideals and perceptions used in an effort to write about the past and as such can distort the historical account in an effort to placate a modern audience.
Early historians
Several of the earliest histories of America's founding and its founders were written by Jeremy Belknap, author of his three volume work, ''The history of New-Hampshire'', published in 1784.
David Ramsay (historian), David Ramsay, one of the first major historians of the American Revolutionary War.[#cooney1967, Cooney, 1967 Master of Arts Thesis]
Mercy Otis Warren
Mercy Otis Warren (September 14, eptember 25, New Style1728 – October 19, 1814) was an American activist poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. During the years before the Revolution, she had published poems and pla ...
wrote extensively about the Revolution and Post Revolution. All of her works were published anonymously until 1790.[
Mason Locke Weems wrote the first biography of Washington in 1800. It contains the famous story about the young Washington and the cherry tree.
William Wirt (Attorney General), William Wirt wrote the first biography about ]Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first an ...
in 1805, but was accused for much bias in his praise of Henry.
John Marshall
John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...
, a Supreme Court Justice who completed and published a two volume biography of Washington in 1832, three years before his death.
Rufus Wilmot Griswold authored ''Washington and the Generals of the Revolution'', a two volume work published in 1885.
Henry Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States S ...
, wrote a nine volume work, ''The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison'', acclaimed for its literary style, and documentary evidence, and first hand knowledge of major figures during the early period.
Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History at Harvard University, editor of a definitive twenty-seven volume work entitled, ''The American Nation: A History'', published in 1904–1918.
Modern historians
Articles and books by 20th- and 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.
Dumas Malone is noted for his six-volume biography ''Jefferson and His Time'', for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize, and for his co-editorship of the twenty-volume ''Dictionary of American Biography''.
Douglas Southall Freeman wrote an extensive seven volume biography on George Washington. Historian and George Washington biographer John E. Ferling maintains that no other biography for Washington compares to that of Freeman's work.
Ron Chernow won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 Washington: A Life, biography of Washington. His 2004 Alexander Hamilton (book), bestselling book ''Alexander Hamilton'' inspired the 2015 blockbuster Hamilton (musical), 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. Freeman has documented the often opposing visions of the Founding Fathers as they tried to build a new framework for governance."
Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian and Harvard Law School professor. She is noted for changing scholarship on Jefferson regarding his alleged 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."
David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize–winning 2001 book, ''John Adams (book), John Adams.'', focuses on the Founding Father, and his 2005 book, ''1776 (book), 1776'', details Washington's military history in the American Revolution and other independence events carried out by America's founders.[#mccullough2001, McCullough, 2001, 751 pages]
Jack P. Greene is an American historian, specializing in Colonial American history.
Peter S. Onuf and Jack N. Rakove have researched Jefferson extensively.
;Noted collections
* Adams Papers Editorial Project
* Founders Online – a searchable database of over 184,000 documents authored by or addressed to George Washington, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
* The 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 Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University
See also
* Adams Memorial (proposed)
* Benjamin Franklin National Memorial
* Charters of Freedom
* Father of the Nation
* Founders Online
* George Mason Memorial
* History of the United States (1776–1789)
* History of the United States Constitution
* Jefferson Memorial
* Journals of the Continental Congress
* List of military leaders in the American Revolutionary War
* List of national founders
* Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
* Rights of Englishmen
* Signing of the United States Constitution
* Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence
* Timeline of drafting and ratification of the United States Constitution
* Washington Monument
Notes
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* Dreisbach, Daniel L. ''Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers'' (2017
online review
* Flower, Milton Embick,
John Dickinson, Conservative Revolutionary
', University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia (1983)
* Freeman, Joanne B.
Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic
'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.
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* Green, Steven K. (2015). ''Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding.'' Oxford University Press.
* Harris, Matthew; Kidd, Thomas, eds. (2012). ''The founding fathers and the debate over religion in revolutionary America: a history in documents''. (Oxford University Press.
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* Koch, Adrienne (1961).
Power, Morals, and the Founding Fathers: Essays in the Interpretation of the American Enlightenment
'. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
* Kostyal, K. M. (2014). ''Founding Fathers: The Fight for Freedom and the Birth of American Liberty''
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* Previdi, Robert. "Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America," ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'', Vol. 29, 1999
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* Trees, Andrew S.
The Founding Fathers and the Politics of Character
', Princeton University Press (2005)
* Valsania, Maurizio. ''The French Enlightenment in America: Essays on the Times of the Founding Fathers'' (U of Georgia Press, 2021).
External links
Founders Online: Correspondence and Other Writings of Seven Major Shapers of the United States
Meet the Framers of the Constitution
National Archives
The Federalist Papers
The Avalon Project, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University
Signers of the Declaration of Independence
National Archives
Signers of the Declaration: Individual Biographies
National Park Service
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
Were the Founding Fathers 'Ordinary People'?
PolitiFact
{{DEFAULTSORT:Founding Fathers Of The United States
1910s neologisms
Age of Enlightenment
American Revolution
National founders, United States
Patriots in the American Revolution
Political leaders of the American Revolution