Founding Fathers of the United States

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

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

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

Although Abraham Lincoln used the term "Fathers" when referring to the founders in his 1860 Cooper Union speech and 1863 Gettysburg Address, the phrase Founding Fathers was coined by Senator Warren G. Harding in 1916. In 1973, historian Richard B. Morris identified seven figures as key Founding Fathers: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington, based on the critical and substantive roles they played in the formation of the country's new government.

Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were members of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were authors of The Federalist Papers, advocating ratification of the Constitution. 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. Jay, Adams, and Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Paris that brought an end to the American Revolutionary War. Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and later president of the Constitutional Convention. All held additional important roles in the early government of the United States, with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison serving as president, Adams and Jefferson as vice president, Jay as the nation's first chief justice, Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury, Jefferson and Madison as Secretary of State, and Franklin as America's most senior diplomat and later the governmental leader of Pennsylvania.

Beyond a select set of "greats", there is little consensus as to who qualifies as a founder. Many historians recognize signers of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, while some include all delegates to the Constitutional Convention — referred to as framers — whether they signed it or not. A few sources include signers of other documents, such as the Continental Association, a trade embargo against Great Britain adopted by the Continental Congress in 1774 that united the colonies for the first time, and the Articles of Confederation, which became the nation's first constitution in 1778. In addition, scholars have identified several dozen other individuals who did not sign any documents, including women as well as men, in recognition of their significant contributions to the American cause from the 1770s through the 1790s.

Background

The Albany Congress of 1754 was a conference attended by seven colonies, which presaged later efforts at cooperation. The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 included representatives from nine colonies.

The First Continental Congress met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September and October of 1774. The assembly consisted of 56 delegates from twelve of the thirteen American colonies with Georgia declining to participate because it needed British military support against Indian attacks. Among the delegates was George Washington, who would soon be drawn out of military retirement to command the Continental Army with the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. Also in attendance were Patrick Henry and John Adams, who, like all delegates, were elected by their respective colonial assemblies. Other notable delegates included Samuel Adams from Massachusetts, John Dickinson from Pennsylvania, and New York's John Jay. In addition to formulating appeals to the British Crown, the Congress established the Continental Association to administer a boycott of British goods.

When the Second Continental Congress convened on May 10, 1775, it essentially reconstituted the First Congress. Many of the same 56 delegates who attended the first meeting participated in the second. New arrivals included Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, John Hancock of Massachusetts, John Witherspoon of New Jersey, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton of Maryland. Hancock was elected Congress president two weeks into the session when Peyton Randolph was recalled to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses. Thomas Jefferson replaced Randolph in the Virginia congressional delegation. The second Congress declared independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776 and two days later, on July 4, adopted the Declaration of Independence. The name "United States of America", which first appeared on the Declaration, was formally adopted by the Congress on September 9, 1776.

The newly-founded country needed a new government to replace the one created by the British Parliament. In 1778, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, a constitution establishing a national government with a one-house legislature. Its ratification by all thirteen colonies gave the second Congress a new name: the Congress of the Confederation, which met from 1781 to 1789. The Constitutional Convention took place during the summer of 1787, in Philadelphia. Although the convention was called to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset for some including James Madison and Alexander Hamilton was to create a new frame of government rather than amending the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the convention. The result of the convention was the United States Constitution and the replacement of the Continental Congress with the United States Congress.

List of Founding Fathers

Among the documents issued between 1774 and 1789 by the Continental Congress, four are regarded as "founding documents" by some historians and others: Continental Association (CA), Declaration of Independence (DI), Articles of Confederation (AC), and United States Constitution (USC). Altogether, 145 men signed at least one of the four documents. In each instance, roughly 50% of the individuals who signed are unique to that document. Six men signed three of the four documents, and only Roger Sherman, a Connecticut attorney later to become a U.S. Senator, signed all four. Less than 10% of the signers were "ordinary people". The others were roughly divided between lawyers (46%) and a mix of occupations (44%): merchants, planters/farmers, politicians, and physicians. While there are many exceptions, the signers generally were from better families, were better educated, and because of those factors as well as their individual abilities, rose to become leaders in their respective colonies.

Other sources, such as the National Archives and U.S. Congress, recognize only two of these "founding documents", the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. In place of the other documents, they add the United States Bill of Rights, which includes the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, and The Federalist Papers, a collection of writings by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that led to the Constitution's ratification. The Library of Congress recognizes these four documents as well, as part of an extensive collection of "primary documents" that also includes the Continental Association and Articles of Confederation.

The following persons are considered Founding Fathers based on their signing the documents indicated. As previously noted, some sources do not recognize the Continental Association and Articles of Confederation as founding documents.

Name	Province/state	Number signed	CA (1774)	DI (1776)	AC (1777)	USC (1787)
John Adams	Massachusetts	2	Yes	Yes
Samuel Adams	Massachusetts	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thomas Adams	Virginia	1			Yes
John Alsop	New York	1	Yes
Abraham Baldwin	Georgia	1				Yes
John Banister	Virginia	1			Yes
Josiah Bartlett	New Hampshire	2		Yes	Yes
Richard Bassett	Delaware	1				Yes
Gunning Bedford Jr.	Delaware	1				Yes
Egbert Benson	New York	0
Edward Biddle	Pennsylvania	1	Yes
John Blair	Virginia	1				Yes
Richard Bland	Virginia	1	Yes
William Blount	North Carolina	1				Yes
Simon Boerum	New York	1	Yes
Carter Braxton	Virginia	1		Yes
David Brearley	New Jersey	1				Yes
Jacob Broom	Delaware	1				Yes
Pierce Butler	South Carolina	1				Yes
Charles Carroll	Maryland	1		Yes
Daniel Carroll	Maryland	2			Yes	Yes
Richard Caswell	North Carolina	1	Yes
Samuel Chase	Maryland	2	Yes	Yes
Abraham Clark	New Jersey	1		Yes
William Clingan	Pennsylvania	1			Yes
George Clymer	Pennsylvania	2		Yes		Yes
John Collins	Rhode Island	1			Yes
Stephen Crane	New Jersey	1	Yes
Thomas Cushing	Massachusetts	1	Yes
Francis Dana	Massachusetts	1			Yes
Jonathan Dayton	New Jersey	1				Yes
Silas Deane	Connecticut	1	Yes
John De Hart	New Jersey	1	Yes
John Dickinson	Delaware	3			Yes	Yes
	Pennsylvania		Yes
William Henry Drayton	South Carolina	1			Yes
James Duane	New York	2	Yes		Yes
William Duer	New York	1			Yes
Eliphalet Dyer	Connecticut	1	Yes
William Ellery	Rhode Island	2		Yes	Yes
William Few	Georgia	1				Yes
Thomas Fitzsimons	Pennsylvania	1				Yes
William Floyd	New York	2	Yes	Yes
Nathaniel Folsom	New Hampshire	1	Yes
Benjamin Franklin	Pennsylvania	2		Yes		Yes
Christopher Gadsden	South Carolina	1	Yes
Joseph Galloway	Pennsylvania	1	Yes
Elbridge Gerry	Massachusetts	2		Yes	Yes
Nicholas Gilman	New Hampshire	1				Yes
Nathaniel Gorham	Massachusetts	1				Yes
Button Gwinnett	Georgia	1		Yes
Lyman Hall	Georgia	1		Yes
Alexander Hamilton	New York	1				Yes
John Hancock	Massachusetts	2		Yes	Yes
John Hanson	Maryland	1			Yes
Cornelius Harnett	North Carolina	1			Yes
Benjamin Harrison	Virginia	2	Yes	Yes
John Hart	New Jersey	1		Yes
John Harvie	Virginia	1			Yes
Patrick Henry	Virginia	1	Yes
Joseph Hewes	North Carolina	2	Yes	Yes
Thomas Heyward Jr.	South Carolina	2		Yes	Yes
Samuel Holten	Massachusetts	1			Yes
William Hooper	North Carolina	2	Yes	Yes
Stephen Hopkins	Rhode Island	2	Yes	Yes
Francis Hopkinson	New Jersey	1		Yes
Titus Hosmer	Connecticut	1			Yes
Charles Humphreys	Pennsylvania	1	Yes
Samuel Huntington	Connecticut	2		Yes	Yes
Richard Hutson	South Carolina	1			Yes
Jared Ingersoll	Pennsylvania	1				Yes
William Jackson	South Carolina	1				Yes
John Jay	New York	1	Yes
Thomas Jefferson	Virginia	1		Yes
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer	Maryland	1				Yes
Thomas Johnson	Maryland	1	Yes
William Samuel Johnson	Connecticut	1				Yes
Rufus King	Massachusetts	1				Yes
James Kinsey	New Jersey	1	Yes
John Langdon	New Hampshire	1				Yes
Edward Langworthy	Georgia	1			Yes
Henry Laurens	South Carolina	1			Yes
Francis Lightfoot Lee	Virginia	2		Yes	Yes
Richard Henry Lee	Virginia	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Francis Lewis	New York	2		Yes	Yes
Philip Livingston	New York	2	Yes	Yes
Robert R. Livingston	New York	0
William Livingston	New Jersey	2	Yes			Yes
James Lovell	Massachusetts	1			Yes
Isaac Low	New York	1	Yes
Thomas Lynch	South Carolina	1	Yes
Thomas Lynch Jr.	South Carolina	1		Yes
James Madison	Virginia	1				Yes
Henry Marchant	Rhode Island	1			Yes
Luther Martin	Maryland	0
George Mason	Virginia	0
John Mathews	South Carolina	1			Yes
James McHenry	Maryland	1				Yes
Thomas McKean	Delaware	3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Arthur Middleton	South Carolina	1		Yes
Henry Middleton	South Carolina	1	Yes
Thomas Mifflin	Pennsylvania	2	Yes			Yes
Gouverneur Morris	New York	2			Yes
	Pennsylvania					Yes
Lewis Morris	New York	1		Yes
Robert Morris	Pennsylvania	3		Yes	Yes	Yes
John Morton	Pennsylvania	2	Yes	Yes
Thomas Nelson Jr.	Virginia	1		Yes
William Paca	Maryland	2	Yes	Yes
Robert Treat Paine	Massachusetts	2	Yes	Yes
William Paterson	New Jersey	1				Yes
Edmund Pendleton	Virginia	1	Yes
John Penn	North Carolina	2		Yes	Yes
Charles Pinckney	South Carolina	1				Yes
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	South Carolina	1				Yes
Peyton Randolph	Virginia	1	Yes
George Read	Delaware	3	Yes	Yes		Yes
Joseph Reed	Pennsylvania	1			Yes
Daniel Roberdeau	Pennsylvania	1			Yes
Caesar Rodney	Delaware	2	Yes	Yes
George Ross	Pennsylvania	2	Yes	Yes
Benjamin Rush	Pennsylvania	1		Yes
Edward Rutledge	South Carolina	2	Yes	Yes
John Rutledge	South Carolina	2	Yes			Yes
Nathaniel Scudder	New Jersey	1			Yes
Roger Sherman	Connecticut	4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
James Smith	Pennsylvania	1		Yes
Jonathan Bayard Smith	Pennsylvania	1			Yes
Richard Smith	New Jersey	1	Yes
Richard Dobbs Spaight	North Carolina	1				Yes
Richard Stockton	New Jersey	1		Yes
Thomas Stone	Maryland	1		Yes
Caleb Strong	Massachusetts	0
John Sullivan	New Hampshire	1	Yes
George Taylor	Pennsylvania	1		Yes
Edward Telfair	Georgia	1			Yes
Charles Thomson	Pennsylvania	0
Matthew Thornton	New Hampshire	1		Yes
Matthew Tilghman	Maryland	1	Yes
Nicholas Van Dyke	Delaware	1			Yes
George Walton	Georgia	1		Yes
John Walton	Georgia	1			Yes
Samuel Ward	Rhode Island	1	Yes
George Washington	Virginia	2	Yes			Yes
John Wentworth Jr.	New Hampshire	1			Yes
William Whipple	New Hampshire	1		Yes
John Williams	North Carolina	1			Yes
William Williams	Connecticut	1		Yes
Hugh Williamson	North Carolina	1				Yes
James Wilson	Pennsylvania	2		Yes		Yes
Henry Wisner	New York	1	Yes
John Witherspoon	New Jersey	2		Yes	Yes
Oliver Wolcott	Connecticut	2		Yes	Yes
George Wythe	Virginia	1		Yes

Notes:

Social background and commonalities

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

George Washington served as president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

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

Robert R. Livingston, member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.

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

John Jay was president of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779 and negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Adams and Franklin.

James Madison, called the "Father of the Constitution" by his contemporaries

Peyton Randolph, as president of the Continental Congress, presided over creation of the Continental Association.

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

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

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

Henry Laurens was president of the Continental Congress when the Articles were passed on November 15, 1777.

Roger Sherman, a member of the Committee of Five, the only person who signed all four U.S. founding documents.

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

The Founding Fathers represented a cross-section of 18th-century U.S. leadership. According to a study of the biographies by Caroline Robbins:

The Signers came for the most part from an educated elite, were residents of older settlements, and belonged with a few exceptions to a moderately well-to-do class representing only a fraction of the population. Native or born overseas, they were of British stock and of the Protestant faith.

They were leaders in their communities; several were also prominent in national affairs. Virtually all participated in the American Revolution; at the Constitutional Convention at least 29 had served in the Continental Army, most of them in positions of command.

Education

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

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

Colleges attended

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

Advanced degrees and apprenticeships

Doctors of Medicine

• University of Edinburgh: Rush
• University of Utrecht, Netherlands: Hugh Williamson

Theology

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

Legal apprenticeships

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

Self-taught or little formal education

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

Demographics

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

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

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

Occupations

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

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

Finances

In 1977, historian Caroline Robbins examined the status of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and concluded:

There were indeed disparities of wealth, earned or inherited: some Signers were rich, others had about enough to enable them to attend Congress. ... The majority of revolutionaries were from moderately well-to-do or average income brackets. Twice as many Loyalists belonged to the wealthiest echelon. But some Signers were rich; few, indigent. ... The Signers were elected not for wealth or rank so much as because of the evidence they had already evinced of willingness for public service.

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

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

Prior political experience

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

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

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

Religion

See also: Religious views of George Washington and Religious views of Thomas Jefferson

Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 28 were Anglicans (i.e. Church of England; or Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), 21 were other Protestant, and two were Roman Catholic (Daniel Carroll and Fitzsimons; Charles Carroll was Roman Catholic but was not a Constitution signatory). Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists.

A few prominent Founding Fathers were 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 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.

Slavery

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

Further information: Slavery in the United States, George Washington and slavery, and Thomas Jefferson and 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". In addition to Jefferson, Washington and many other of the Founding Fathers were slaveowners, but some were also conflicted by the institution, seeing it as immoral and politically divisive; Washington gradually became a cautious supporter of abolitionism and freed his slaves in his will. Jay and Hamilton led the successful fight to outlaw the slave trade in New York, with the efforts beginning as early as 1777. Conversely, many Founders such as Samuel Adams and John Adams were against slavery their entire lives. Rush wrote a pamphlet in 1773 which criticizes the slave trade as well as the institution of slavery. In the pamphlet, Rush argues on a scientific basis that Africans are not by nature intellectually or morally inferior, and that any apparent evidence to the contrary is only the "perverted expression" of slavery, which "is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it." The Continental Association contained a clause which banned any Patriot involvement in slave trading.

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

Slaves and slavery are mentioned only indirectly in the 1787 Constitution. For example, Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 prescribes that "three-fifths of all other Persons" are to be counted for the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and direct taxes. Additionally, in Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3, slaves are referred to as "persons held in service or labor". 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. As a result, thousands of slaves were manumitted in Virginia. In 1784, Jefferson proposed to ban slavery in all the western territories, which failed to pass Congress by one vote. Partially following Jefferson's plan, Congress did ban slavery in the Northwest Ordinance, for lands north of the Ohio River.

The international slave trade was banned in all states except South Carolina by 1800. Finally in 1807, President Jefferson called for and signed into law a federally enforced ban on the international slave trade throughout the U.S. and its territories. It became a federal crime to import or export a slave. However, the domestic slave trade was allowed for expansion or for diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory.

Attendance at conventions

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

Spouses and children

Only four (Baldwin, Gilman, Jenifer, and Martin) were lifelong bachelors. Many of the Founding Fathers' wives—such as Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Sarah Livingston Jay, Dolley Madison, Mary White Morris and Catherine Alexander Duer—were strong women who made significant contributions of their own to the fight for liberty.

Sherman fathered the largest family: 15 children by two wives. At least nine (Bassett, Brearly, Johnson, Mason, Paterson, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Sherman, Wilson, and Wythe) married more than once. Washington, who became known as "The Father of His Country", had no biological children, though he and his wife raised two children from her first marriage and two grandchildren.

Post-constitution life

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

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

Death age of the Founding Fathers

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

Legacy

Institutions formed by Founders

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

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

Noted collections of the Founding Fathers

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

Scholarship on the Founders

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

Historians who focus on the Founding Fathers

Ron Chernow won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 biography of Washington. His 2004 bestselling book about Hamilton inspired the 2015 blockbuster musical of the same name. Both Peter S. Onuf and Jack N. Rakove researched Jefferson extensively.

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.

We can win no laurels in a war for independence. Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us ... [as] the founders of states. Our fathers have filled them. But there remains to us a great duty of defence and preservation.

Daniel Webster, 1825.

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, "Regional distrust, personal animosity, accusation, suspicion, implication, and denouncement—this was the tenor of national politics from the outset."

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

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

In stage and film

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

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

Presidents of the United States

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

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  George Washington served as delegate from Virginia in 1774-1775.

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  John Adams served as delegate from Massachusetts in 1774-1777.

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  Thomas Jefferson served as delegate from Virginia in 1775-1776 and 1783-1784.

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  James Madison served as delegate from Virginia in 1780-1783 and 1787-1788.

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  James Monroe served as delegate from Virginia in 1783-1786.

Other notable patriots of the period

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

Abigail Adams, close advisor to her husband John Adams

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

• Abigail Adams, advisor, confidant, first lady, wife of John Adams and mother of President John Quincy Adams
• Ethan Allen, military and political leader in Vermont
• Richard Allen, African-American bishop, founder of the Free African Society and the A.M.E. Church
• John Bartram, botanist, horticulturist, and explorer
• Egbert Benson, politician from New York, delegate to the Continental Congress and the Annapolis Convention (1786)
• Israel Bissell, a patriot post rider in Massachusetts who rode the news to Philadelphia of the British attack on Lexington and Concord.
• Elias Boudinot, New Jersey delegate to Continental Congress
• Aaron Burr, vice president under Jefferson
• Angelica Schuyler Church, sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, correspondeded with many of the leading Founding Fathers
• George Rogers Clark, army general, nicknamed "Conqueror of the Old Northwest".
• George Clinton, New York governor and vice president of the U.S.
• Tench Coxe, economist in the Continental Congress
• William Richardson Davie, delegate to the Constitutional Convention (leaving before he could sign it), and governor of North Carolina
• Oliver Ellsworth, member of the Continental Congress, Founding Framer on the Committee of Detail and fashioned the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention, chief author Judiciary Act of 1789, third chief justice of the United States
• Albert Gallatin, politician and treasury secretary
• Horatio Gates, army general
• Nathanael Greene, Revolutionary War general; commanded the southern theater
• Nathan Hale, captured U.S. soldier executed in 1776
• Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton
• Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy
• James Iredell, essayist for independence and advocate for the constitution, one of the first Supreme Court justices
• John Paul Jones, navy captain
• Henry Knox, army general, Secretary of War, founder Society of the Cincinnati
• Tadeusz Kościuszko, American general, former Polish army general
• Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish military, governor of Spanish Louisiana.
• Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French Marquis who became a Continental Army general
• John Laurance, New York politician and judge who served as judge advocate general during the Revolution.
• Henry Lee III, army officer and Virginia governor
• William Maclay, Pennsylvania politician and U.S. senator
• Dolley Madison, first lady (wife of James Madison)
• John Marshall, fourth U.S. chief justice
• George Mason, revolutionary writer, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Founding Framer and influential delegate to the Constitutional Convention, co-father of the United States Bill of Rights
• Philip Mazzei, Italian physician, merchant, and author
• James Monroe, fifth president of the United States
• Daniel Morgan, military leader and Virginia congressman
• Samuel Nicholas, commander-in-chief of the Continental Marines
• James Otis Jr., Massachusetts lawyer and politician
• Thomas Paine, author of the January 1776 pamphlet Common Sense which urged and inspired the colonists to declare their independence from Great Britain.
• Andrew Pickens, army general and South Carolina congressman
• Timothy Pickering, U.S. secretary of state, from Massachusetts
• Oliver Pollock (1737-1823, a merchant, diplomat, and financier of the American Revolutionary War
• Israel Putnam, army general
• Edmund Randolph, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he introduced the Virginia Plan and served on the drafting committee; first United States attorney general and second U.S. secretary of state
• Paul Revere, silversmith, member of the Sons of Liberty, participant in the midnight ride
• Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French army general
• Philip Schuyler, Revolutionary War general, U.S. Senator from New York, father of the Schuyler sisters.
• Haym Solomon, financier and spy for the Continental Army
• Arthur St. Clair, major general, president of the Confederation Congress, and later first governor of the Northwest Territory
• Thomas Sumter, South Carolina military leader, and member of both houses of Congress
• Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress throughout its existence (1774–1789), and principal designer of the obverse and partly of the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States
• Richard Varick, private secretary to George Washington, mayor of New York City, second attorney general of New York state, and founder of the American Bible Society
• Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian officer
• Joseph Warren, doctor, revolutionary leader
• Mercy Otis Warren, political writer
• Anthony Wayne, army general and politician
• Noah Webster, writer, lexicographer, educator
• Thomas Willing, delegate to the Continental Congress from Pennsylvania, the first president of the Bank of North America, and the first president of the First Bank of the United States

See also

• Father of the Nation
• Founders Online
• History of the United States Constitution
• History of the United States (1776–1789)
• List of military leaders in the American Revolutionary War
• List of national founders
• Rights of Englishmen
• Sons of Liberty
• 1776 Commission
• Adams Memorial (proposed)
• Benjamin Franklin National Memorial
• Jefferson Memorial
• George Mason Memorial
• Washington Monument
• Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Further reading

• American National Biography Online, (2000).
• Bailyn, Bernard. To Begin the World Anew (Knopf, 2003) online.
• Bernstein, Richard B. Are We to Be a Nation? The Making of the Constitution. (Harvard University Press, 1987).
• Bernstein, R.B. The Founding Fathers Reconsidered (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) online.
• Brown, Richard D. "The Founding Fathers of 1776 and 1787: A Collective View," William and Mary Quarterly, 33#3 (July 1976), pp. 465–480 JSTOR 1921543.
• Commager, Henry Steele. "Leadership in Eighteenth-Century America and Today," Daedalus 90 (Fall 1961): 650–673, reprinted in Henry Steele Commager, Freedom and Order (New York: George Braziller, 1966) online.
• Dreisbach, Daniel L. Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers (2017) online review
• Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000) online.
• Ellis, Joseph J. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783–1789 (New York: Vintage Books, 2016) online.
• Freeman, Joanne B. Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.
• Green, Steven K. Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding. (Oxford University Press, 2015).
• Greene, Jack P. "The Social Origins of the American Revolution: An Evaluation and an Interpretation," Political Science Quarterly, 88#1 (Mar. 1973), pp. 1–22 JSTOR 2148646.
• Harris, Matthew, and Thomas Kidd, eds. The founding fathers and the debate over religion in revolutionary America: a history in documents (Oxford UP, 2012).
• Harris, P.M.G., "The Social Origins of American Leaders: The Demographic Foundations, " Perspectives in American History 3 (1969): 159–364.
• Lefer, David. The Founding Conservatives: How a Group of Unsung Heroes Saved the American Revolution (2013)
• Kann, Mark E. The Gendering of American Politics: Founding Mothers, Founding Fathers, and Political Patriarchy (New York: Frederick Praeger, 1999). online
• Koch, Adrienne. Power, Morals, and the Founding Fathers: Essays in the Interpretation of the American Enlightenment (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1961).
• Kostyal, K. M. Founding Fathers: The Fight for Freedom and the Birth of American Liberty (2014)
• Lambert, Franklin T. The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. (Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 2003).
• Martin, James Kirby. Men in Rebellion: Higher Governmental Leaders and the coming of the American Revolution, (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1973; reprint, New York: Free Press, 1976) online.
• Morris, Richard B. Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).
• Previdi, Robert. "Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America," Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
• Rakove, Jack. Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2010) 487 pages; scholarly study focuses on how the Founders moved from private lives to public action, beginning in the 1770s
• Roberts, Cokie. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. (New York: William Morrow, 2005) online.
• Trees, Andrew S. The founding fathers and the politics of character (Princeton University Press, 2005). online
• Valsania, Maurizio. The French Enlightenment in America: Essays on the Times of the Founding Fathers (U of Georgia Press, 2021).
• Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different (New York: Penguin Press, 2006) online

External links

• Founders Online: Correspondence and Other Writings of Six Major Shapers of the United States
• Debunks – along with other fact finding sites – the Internet Myth of "What Happened to The Signers of the Declaration of Independence" (Published June 28, 2005) (Retrieved January 30, 2015)
• What Would the Founding Fathers Do Today? at the Wayback Machine (archived January 14, 2007)
• "Founding Father Quotes, Biographies, and Writings"
• The Myth of the Founding Fathers, The Myths That Made America by Heike Paul (published 2013)