Founding Fathers of the United States

Portraits and autograph signatures of the Founding Fathers, who unanimously signed the Declaration of Independence at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia

The National Archives has identified three founding documents as the "Charters of Freedom": Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and Bill of Rights. According to the Archives, these documents "have secured the rights of the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States."[40] In addition, as the nation's first constitution, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union is also a founding document.[41][42] As a result, signers of three key documents are generally considered to be Founding Fathers of the United States: Declaration of Independence (DI),[18] Articles of Confederation (AC),[20] and U.S. Constitution (USC).[19] The following table provides a list of these signers, some of whom signed more than one document.

The 55 delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention are referred to as framers. Of these, 16 failed to sign the document.[43] Three refused, while the remainder left early, either in protest of the proceedings or for personal reasons.[44][45] Nevertheless, some sources regard all framers as Founders, including those who did not sign:[19][46]

_{(*) Randolph, Mason, and Gerry were the only three present at the Constitution's adoption who refused to sign.}

In addition to the signers and Framers of the founding documents and one of the seven notable leaders previously mentioned—John Jay—the following are regarded as Founders based on their contributions to the creation and early development of the new nation:

• Elias Boudinot, New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress, Congress of the Confederation (president 1782–1783), and the first three U.S. Congresses. Boudinot was director of the U.S. Mint under presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, and also was the founding president of the American Bible Society.[47]
• George Clinton, first governor of New York, 1777–1795, served again from 1801 to 1805, and was the fourth vice president of the US, 1805–1812. He was an anti-Federalist advocate of the Bill of Rights.[48]
• Patrick Henry, gifted orator, known for his famous quote, "Give me liberty, or give me death!",[49] 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 completed terms as the first and sixth governor of Virginia, 1776–1779 and 1784–1786.[50]
• Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy[51]
• Henry Knox served as chief artillery 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 under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.[22]
• Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French Marquis who became a Continental Army general.[52] 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.[53]
• Robert R. Livingston, member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, 1776; first U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1781–1783, and first Chancellor of New York, 1777–1801. He administered the presidential oath of office at the First inauguration of George Washington and with James Monroe negotiated the Louisiana Purchase as the minister to France.[54][55]
• John Marshall served with George Washington at Valley Forge and later would be the first to refer to him as "the Father of his country". Appointed the fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court under John Adams, Marshall defined the authority of the court and ensured the stability of the federal government during the first three decades of the 19th century.[56][57][58][59]
• James Monroe, elected to the Virginia legislature (1782); member of the Continental Congress (1783–1786);[60] fifth president of the United States for two terms (1817–1825);[61] Negotiated the Louisiana Purchase along with Robert Livingston.[62]
• Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and other influential pamphlets in the 1770s; sometimes referred to as "Father of the American Revolution".[56][63][64] 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.[65][66]
• Peyton Randolph, speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the First Continental Congress, and a signer of the Continental Association.[67]
• John Rogers, Maryland lawyer and judge, delegate to the Continental Congress who voted for the Declaration of Independence but fell ill before he could sign it.[68]
• Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress from its formation to its final session, 1774–1789.[69]
• Joseph Warren, respected physician and architect of the Revolutionary movement, known as the "Founding Martyr" for his death at the Battle of Bunker Hill, drafted the Suffolk Resolves in response to the Intolerable Acts.[70]
• "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a prominent army general during the Revolutionary War.[71][56]
• 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[72]
• Henry Wisner, New York Continental Congress delegate who voted for the Declaration of Independence but left Philadelphia before the signing.

Selected portraits of Founding Fathers

Benjamin Franklin Early advocate of colonial unity, was a foundational figure in defining the US ethos and exemplifying the emerging nation's ideals. 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. Robert R. Livingston Member Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence; administered oath of office to Washington John Jay President of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779; negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Adams and Franklin; wrote The Federalist Papers with Hamilton and Madison. James Madison Called the "Father of the Constitution" by his contemporaries[73] Peyton Randolph President of the Continental Congress, presided over creation of the Continental Association[74] Richard Henry Lee 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 signature on the United States Declaration of Independence Samuel Adams Member of the First and Second Continental Congress; Signed the Continental Association, Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution John Dickinson Known as the "Penman of the Revolution"; wrote the 1774 Petition to the King, the 1775 Olive Branch Petition, the final draft of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, and the first draft of the Articles of Confederation. Henry Laurens President of the Continental Congress (November 1, 1777 – December 9, 1778) when the Articles were passed on November 15, 1777.[75] Roger Sherman Member of the Committee of Five, developed the Constitution's influential Connecticut Compromise and was the only person who signed all four major U.S. founding documents.[76] Robert Morris President of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety, "Financier of the Revolution"; one of the founders of the financial system of the United States. Joseph Warren Physician who died during the Battle of Bunker Hill Thomas Mifflin Member First and Second Continental Congress; Signed the Continental Association and U.S. Constitution Elbridge Gerry Member Second Continental Congress; Signed the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation; Fifth vice President under James Madison

Abigail Adams was a close advisor to her husband John Adams, a Founding Father and the second U.S. president.

Historians have come to recognize the roles women played in the nation's early development, using the term "Founding Mothers".[77][78] Among the females honored in this respect are:

• Abigail Adams, wife, confidant, advisor to John Adams, second First Lady, and mother of the sixth U.S. president John Quincy Adams, famously extolled her husband to "Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors . . . [or] we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation".[48][79][80]
• Mercy Otis Warren, poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution[56][81]

The following men and women are also recognized for the notable contributions they made during the founding era:

• Ethan Allen, military leader and founder of Vermont.[82][48]
• Richard Allen, African-American bishop, founder of the Free African Society and the African Methodist Episcopal Church[83]
• Crispus Attucks, believed to be of Native American and African descent, was the first of five persons killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770, and thus the first to die in the American Revolution.[84] Of the deaths at Boston John Adams would later write, "On that night the foundations of American independence was laid."[85]
• John Barry, an officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, has been credited as "The Father of the American Navy" (sharing the descriptor with John Paul Jones and John Adams)[86] and was the first captain of a U.S. warship commissioned for service under the Continental flag.[87]
• Israel Bissell, a patriot post rider in Massachusetts who rode the news to Philadelphia of the British attack on Lexington and Concord.
• Hugh Henry Brackenridge, lawyer, judge, author, chaplin in the Continental army,[88] ally of Madison,[89] collaborator with Freneau,[90] and central figure in early western Pennsylvania[91][92][93]
• Aaron Burr, vice president under Jefferson[94]
• Cato, a Black Patriot and slave who served as a spy alongside his owner, Hercules Mulligan. Cato carried intelligence gathered by Mulligan to officers in the Continental Army and other revolutionaries, including through British-held territory, which was credited for likely saving George Washington's life on at least two occasions. He was granted his freedom in 1778 for his service.[95]
• Angelica Schuyler Church, sister-in-law of Alexander Hamilton, corresponded with many of the leading Founding Fathers, including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and the Marquis de Lafayette.[96]
• Tench Coxe, economist in the Continental Congress[97]
• Silas Deane, a delegate to the Continental Congress who signed the Continental Association, became the first foreign diplomat from the U.S. to France where he helped negotiate and then signed the 1778 Treaty of Alliance that allied France with the United States during the Revolutionary War.
• Philip Freneau, called the "Poet of the Revolution"[98][99]
• Albert Gallatin, politician and treasury secretary[100]
• Nathanael Greene, Revolutionary War general; commanded the southern theater[71]
• Nathan Hale, captured U.S. soldier, executed in 1776 for spying on British in New York[101]
• Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton[102][103]
• James Iredell, essayist for independence and advocate for the constitution, early Supreme Court Justice[56]
• John Paul Jones, U.S. Navy captain; when the British requested his surrender, he replied, "I have not yet begun to fight"[71][104]
• Benjamin Kent, lawyer, Massachusetts Attorney General, senior member of the Sons of Liberty and the North End Caucus. In April, 1776, Kent encouraged John Adams to declare American independence.[105][106][107]
• Tadeusz Kościuszko, American general, former Polish army general[100]
• Bernardo de Galvez, Spanish military, governor of Spanish Louisiana. Captured Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile, all in British West Florida.[108]
• John Laurance, New York politician and judge who served as Judge advocate general during the Revolution[109]
• Arthur Lee, diplomat who helped negotiate and signed the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France, along with Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane.
• Henry Lee III, army officer and Virginia governor[71]
• William Maclay, Pennsylvania politician and U.S. senator[56]
• Philip Mazzei, Italian physician, merchant, and author[110]
• Daniel Morgan, military leader and Virginia congressman[71]
• Hercules Mulligan, Irish-American tailor and spy, member of the Sons of Liberty.[111] Introduced Alexander Hamilton into New York society and helped him recruit men for his artillery units.[112]
• Samuel Nicholas, commander-in-chief of the Continental Marines[113]
• James Otis Jr., one of the earliest proponents of patriotic causes, an opponent of slavery, and leader of Massachusetts' Committee of Correspondence, all in the 1760s.[114][115]
• Andrew Pickens, army general and South Carolina congressman[71]
• Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War, U.S. secretary of state, from Massachusetts. Fired by President John Adams; replaced by John Marshall.[116]
• Oliver Pollock, a merchant, diplomat, and financier of the American Revolutionary War
• Israel Putnam, army general[117]
• Paul Revere, silversmith, member of the Sons of Liberty which staged the Boston Tea Party, and one of two horsemen in the midnight ride.[79]
• Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French army general[100]
• Haym Salomon, along with Robert Morris, was the prime financier of the American Revolution. He also spied for the Continental Army.[118]
• Philip Schuyler, Revolutionary War general, U.S. senator from New York, father of the Schuyler sisters.
• John Sevier, cofounder of the Watauga Association, Revolutionary War soldier, called the Founding Father of Tennessee[119]
• 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[71]
• John Trumbull, artist, whose paintings inform the collective memory of the early American Republic[120][121]
• Richard Varick, private secretary to George Washington, recorder of New York City (1786); Speaker of the New York Assembly (1787); second attorney general of New York state (1788–1789); Mayor of New York City (1789–1801); founder of the American Bible Society (1828)[122]
• Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian officer;[100] Inspector General of Continental Army; present at Valley forge with Washington, training militia[123]
• Noah Webster, political writer, lexicographer, educator[124]

The First Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia's Carpenter's Hall on September 5, 1774.[137] The Congress, which had no legal authority to raise taxes or call on colonial militias, consisted of 56 delegates, including George Washington of Virginia; John Adams and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts; John Jay of New York; John Dickinson of Pennsylvania; and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was unanimously elected its first president.[74][138]

The Congress came close to disbanding in its first few days over the issue of representation, with smaller colonies desiring equality with the larger ones. While Patrick Henry, from the largest colony, Virginia, disagreed, he stressed the greater importance of uniting the colonies: "The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American!".[139] The delegates then began with a discussion of the Suffolk Resolves, which had just been approved at a town meeting in Milton, Massachusetts.[140] Joseph Warren, chairman of the Resolves drafting committee, had dispatched Paul Revere to deliver signed copies to the Congress in Philadelphia.[141][142][131] The Resolves called for the ouster of British officials, a trade embargo of British goods, and the formation of a militia throughout the colonies.[140] 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.[143][144]

The delegates then approved a series of measures, including a Petition to the King in an appeal for peace and a Declaration and Resolves which introduced the ideas of natural law and natural rights, foreshadowing some of the principles found in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.[145] The declaration asserted the rights of colonists and outlined Parliament's abuses of power. Proposed by Richard Henry Lee, it also included a trade boycott known as the Continental Association.[146] The Association, a crucial step toward unification, empowered committees of correspondence throughout the colonies to enforce the boycott. The Declaration and its boycott directly challenged Parliament's right to govern in the Americas, bolstering the view of King George III and his administration under Lord North that the colonies were in a state of rebellion.[147]

Lord Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the Colonies who had been sympathetic to the Americans, condemned the newly established Congress for what he considered its illegal formation and actions.[148][149] 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 on the morning of April 19, 1775, the British troops encountered militia forces, who had been warned the night before by Paul Revere and another messenger on horseback, William Dawes. Even though it is unknown who fired the first shot, the Revolutionary War began.[150]

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

On May 10, 1775, less than three weeks after the Battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress convened in the Pennsylvania State House. The gathering essentially reconstituted the First Congress with many of the same delegates in attendance.[151] Among the new arrivals were Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, John Hancock of Massachusetts, and in June, Thomas Jefferson 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 as speaker, and Jefferson was named to replace him in the Virginia delegation.[152] After adopting the rules of debate from the previous year and reinforcing its emphasis on secrecy,[153][154] the Congress turned to its foremost concern, the defense of the colonies.[155]

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.[156] In answer to the first question, on June 9 the colony's leaders were directed to choose a council to govern within the spirit of the colony's charter.[157][158] 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 next day, Samuel and John Adams nominated Washington as commander-in-chief, a motion that was unanimously approved.[159][160] Two days later, on June 17, the militias clashed with British forces at Bunker Hill, a victory for Britain but a costly one.[161]

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.[162] 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.[159] 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.[163][164] When the Olive Branch Petition arrived in London in September, the king refused to look at it.[165] By then, he had already issued a proclamation declaring the American colonies in rebellion.[166]

Signature page of the Treaty of Paris of 1783 – See also: An image of the first page and a transcript of the treaty

After Washington's final victory at the surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, more than a year passed before official negotiations for peace commenced. The Treaty of Paris was drafted in November 1782, and negotiations began in April 1783. The completed treaty was signed on September 3. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens represented the United States,[181] while David Hartley, a member of Parliament, and Richard Oswald, a prominent and influential Scottish businessman, represented Great Britain.[182][183]

Franklin, who had a long-established rapport with the French and was almost entirely responsible for securing an alliance with them a few months after the start of 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.[184] Communications between Britain and France were largely effected through Franklin and Lord Shelburne who was on good terms with Franklin.[185] 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.[186]

Immediately following the secrecy vote, Virginia governor Edmund Randolph introduced the Virginia Plan, fifteen resolutions written by Madison and his colleagues proposing a government of three branches: a single executive, a bicameral (two-house) legislature, and a judiciary.[200][201][202] 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.[203][204] 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.[205][192]

Discussions of the Virginia resolutions continued into mid-June, when William Paterson of New Jersey presented an alternative proposal.[206] 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.[207][208][209] 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.[210] After agreeing on a single executive who could veto legislation, the delegates turned to an even more contentious issue, legislative representation.[211] Larger states favored proportional representation based on population, while smaller states wanted each state to have the same number of legislators.[212][213][214]

By mid-July, the debates between the large-state and small-state factions had reached an impasse.[215] With the convention on the verge of collapse, Roger Sherman of Connecticut introduced what became known as the Connceticut (or Great) Compromise.[216][217][218] 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.[219][220]

The proceedings left most delegates with reservations.[221][222] Several went home early in protest, believing the convention was overstepping its authority.[223][224][225] Others were concerned about the lack of a Bill of Rights safeguarding individual liberties.[226][227] 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.[228] 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.[221] Rhode Island, which was in a dispute over the state's paper currency, had refused to send anyone to the convention.[229][230] Of the 42 delegates present, only three refused to sign: Randolph and George Mason, both of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.[231][222]

The U. S. Constitution faced one more hurdle: approval by the legislatures in at least nine of the 13 states.[232] 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.[233] 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.[234] Pennsylvania followed suit five days later, splitting its vote 46–23.[235] 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".[236][237][238] Rather than risk everything, the Federalists relented, promising that if the Constitution was adopted, amendments would be added to secure people's rights.[239]

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.[240][241] Virginia followed suit four days later, and New York did the same in late July.[236] After North Carolina's assent in November, another year-and-a-half would pass before the 13th state would weigh in.[242] 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.[243][242]

The Constitution officially took effect on March 4, 1789 (1789-03-04), when the House and Senate met for their first sessions. On April 30, Washington was sworn in as the nation's first president.[244][245][246] Ten amendments, known collectively as the United States Bill of Rights, were ratified on December 15, 1791.[247] Because the delegates were sworn to secrecy, Madison's notes on the ratification were not published until after his death in 1836.[248]

All of the Founding Fathers had extensive political experience at the national and state levels.[271][272] 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 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.[273][274]
• 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 president of Pennsylvania and president of Delaware[275]
• 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.[276] 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 governor of Pennsylvania from 1785 to 1788 and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.[277]
• John Jay was a New York delegate to the First and Second Continental Congress and in 1778 was elected 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 Supreme Court following the Constitution's adoption.[278] Minister to Spain[2][279][280]
• Thomas Jefferson 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 second governor of Virginia (1779–1781) and served as Minister to France (1785–1789).[281][282]
• 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 and member of the Second Continental Congress.[283]
• Roger Sherman had served in the First and Second Continental Congresses, Connecticut House of Representatives and Justice of the Peace.[284]

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.

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[285] and James Monroe,[286] 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,[287] John Blair Jr.,[288] James McClurg,[289] James Francis Mercer,[290] Edmund Randolph[291]
• Columbia University (originally King's College): John Jay,[292] Robert R. Livingston,[293] Gouverneur Morris,[294]
• Harvard University (originally Harvard College): John Adams,[295] Samuel Adams,[296] Francis Dana,[297] William Ellery,[298] Elbridge Gerry,[299] John Hancock,[300] William Hooper,[301] William Samuel Johnson (also Yale),[302] Rufus King,[303] James Lovell,[304] Robert Treat Paine,[305] Caleb Strong,[306] Joseph Warren,[307] John Wentworth Jr.,[308] William Williams[309]
• Princeton University (originally The College of New Jersey):[310] Gunning Bedford Jr.,[311] William Richardson Davie,[312] Jonathan Dayton,[313] Oliver Ellsworth,[314] Joseph Hewes,[315] William Houstoun,[316] Richard Hutson,[317] James Madison,[318] Alexander Martin,[319] Luther Martin,[320] William Paterson,[321] Joseph Reed,[322] Benjamin Rush,[323] Nathaniel Scudder,[324] Jonathan Bayard Smith,[325] Richard Stockton[326]
• University of Pennsylvania (originally College of Philadelphia): Francis Hopkinson,[327] Henry Marchant,[328] Thomas Mifflin,[329] William Paca,[330] Hugh Williamson[331]
• Yale University (originally Yale College): Andrew Adams,[332] Abraham Baldwin,[333] Lyman Hall,[334] Titus Hosmer,[335] Jared Ingersoll,[336] William Samuel Johnson (also Harvard),[302] Philip Livingston,[337] William Livingston,[338] Lewis Morris,[339] Oliver Wolcott[340]

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,[341] William Paca (also University of Pennsylvania graduate)[342][330]
• Middle Temple, also one of the four Inns of Court: John Banister,[343] John Blair,[344] John Dickinson,[345] Thomas Heyward Jr.,[346] Thomas Lynch Jr. (also University of Cambridge graduate),[346] John Matthews,[347] Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,[341] Peyton Randolph,[342][348] John Rutledge[341]
• University of Cambridge, England: Thomas Lynch Jr. (also Middle Temple graduate),[349] Thomas Nelson Jr.[350]
• University of Edinburgh, Scotland: Benjamin Rush,[351] John Witherspoon[352]

Most of the founders were natives of the American Colonies, while just nineteen were born in other parts of the British Empire.

• England: William Richardson Davie,[353] William Duer,[354] Button Gwinnett,[355] Robert Morris,[356] Thomas Paine[357]
• Ireland: Pierce Butler,[358] Thomas Fitzsimons,[359] James McHenry,[360] William Paterson,[361] James Smith,[362] George Taylor,[363] Charles Thomson,[364] Matthew Thornton[365]
• Scotland: Edward Telfair,[366] James Wilson,[367] John Witherspoon[368]
• Wales: Francis Lewis[369]
• West Indies: Alexander Hamilton,[370] Daniel Roberdeau[371]

While the Founding Fathers were engaged in a broad range of occupations, most 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,[372] Lyman Hall,[333] Samuel Holten,[373] James McClurg,[289] James McHenry (surgeon),[374] Benjamin Rush,[323] Nathaniel Scudder,[324] Matthew Thornton,[375] Joseph Warren,[307] and Hugh Williamson.[331]
• John Witherspoon was the only minister, although Lyman Hall had been a preacher prior to becoming a physician.[376][333]
• George Washington, a Virginia planter, was a land surveyor before becoming a colonel in the Virginia Regiment.[377]
• 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.[378][379][380][381]

According to David Sehat, in modern politics:[386]

Everyone cites the Founders. Constitutional originalists consult the Founders' papers to decide original meaning. Proponents of a living and evolving Constitution turn to the Founders as the font of ideas that have grown over time. Conservatives view the Founders as architects of a free enterprise system that built American greatness. The more liberal-leaning, following their sixties parents, claim the Founders as egalitarians, suspicious of concentrations of wealth. Independents look to the Founders to break the logjam of partisan brinksmanship. Across the political spectrum, Americans ground their views in a supposed set of ideas that emerged in the eighteenth century. But, in fact, the Founders disagreed with each other....they had vast and profound differences. They argued over federal intervention in the economy and about foreign policy. They fought bitterly over how much authority rested with the executive branch, about the relationship and prerogatives of federal and state government. The Constitution provided a nearly limitless theater of argument. The founding era was, in reality, one of the most partisan periods of American history.

Fireworks, such as these shown over the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. on July 4, 1986, are an annual national holiday tradition every July 4 in celebration of Independence Day and the founding of the United States.

Independence Day (colloquially called the Fourth of July) is a United States national holiday celebrated yearly on July 4 to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the nation. Washington's Birthday is also observed as a national federal holiday and is also known as Presidents' Day.

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 2002–2003 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.[387]

Several major professional sports teams in the Northeastern United States are named for themes based on the founders:

• New England Patriots (National Football League)
• New England Revolution (Major League Soccer)
• New York Liberty (Women's National Basketball Association)
• Philadelphia 76ers (National Basketball Association)
• Washington Capitals (National Hockey League)
• Washington Nationals (Major League Baseball)

According to Professors Jeffrey K. Tulis and Nicole Mellow:[409]

The Founding, Reconstruction (often called "the second founding"), and the New Deal are typically heralded as the most significant turning points in the country's history, with many observers seeing each of these as political triumphs through which the United States has come to more closely realize its liberal ideals of liberty and equality.

Scholars such as Eric Foner have expanded the theme into books.[410][411][412] Black abolitionists played a key role by stressing that freed blacks needed equal rights after slavery was abolished.[413] Biographer David Blight states that Frederick Douglass, "played a pivotal role in America's Second Founding out of the apocalypse of the Civil War, and he very much wished to see himself as a founder and a defender of the Second American Republic."[414] Constitutional provision for racial equality for free blacks was enacted by a Republican Congress led by Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and Lyman Trumbull.[415] The "second founding" comprised the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. All citizens now had federal rights that could be enforced in federal court. In a deep reaction, after 1876 freedmen lost many of these rights and had second class citizenship in the era of lynching and Jim Crow laws. Finally in the 1950s the U.S., Supreme Court started to restore those rights. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King and James Bevel, the Civil Rights movement made the nation aware of the crisis, and under President Lyndon Johnson major civil rights legislation was passed in 1964–65, and 1968.[416]

Several of the earliest histories of the founding of the United States and its founders were written by Jeremy Belknap, author of his three-volume work, The history of New-Hampshire, published in 1784.[420]

• Henry Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, wrote a nine-volume work, The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, which is acclaimed for its literary style, documentary evidence, and first-hand knowledge of major figures during the early Revolutionary era.[421]
• Rufus Wilmot Griswold authored Washington and the Generals of the Revolution, a two-volume work, in 1885.
• Albert Bushnell Hart, a Harvard University history professor, edited a 27-volume work, The American Nation: A History, published in 1904–1918.[422]
• John Marshall, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, published a two-volume biography of Washington in 1832, three years before his death.
• David Ramsay is regarded as one of the first major historians of the American Revolutionary War.[423]
• Mercy Otis Warren, who wrote extensively about the Revolution and post-Revolution eras, published all her works anonymously until 1790.[423][424]
• Mason Locke Weems authored the first biography of Washington in 1800, which includes the famed story about a young Washington cutting down a cherry tree.[425]
• William Wirt wrote the first biography on Patrick Henry in 1805, but was accused for excessive praise of Henry.[426]

Articles and books by these and other 20th- and 21st-century historians, combined with the digitization of primary sources such as handwritten letters, continue to contribute to an encyclopedic body of knowledge about the Founding Fathers:

• Ron Chernow won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 biography of Washington. His 2004 bestselling book Alexander Hamilton inspired the 2015 blockbuster musical of the same name.
• Douglas Southall Freeman wrote an extensive seven volume biography on Washington. Historian and George Washington biographer John E. Ferling maintains that no other biography for Washington compares to that of Freeman's work.[427]
• 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 20-volume Dictionary of American Biography.

• 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.[394]
• Jack P. Greene is an American historian who specializes in colonial-era American history.
• David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize–winning 2001 book John Adams focuses on Adams, and his 2005 book, 1776 details Washington's military history in the American Revolution and other independence events carried out by America's founders.[428]
• Peter S. Onuf and Jack N. Rakove have researched Jefferson extensively.

According to American historian 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, such as Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun, the founders represented heroic but anonymous abstraction whose long shadow fell across all followers and whose legendary accomplishments defied comparison.

• Adams Papers Editorial Project, an ongoing project by the Massachusetts Historical Society to organize, transcribe, and documents authored by and by the family of John Adams, his wife Abigail Adams, and their family, including John Quincy Adams
• 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 Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University
• The Papers of James Madison at the University of Virginia
• The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University
• The Selected Papers of John Jay at Columbia University
• The Washington Papers at the University of Virginia