American Founding Fathers Who were They – www.pollvote.us

The Founding Fathers These military leaders, rebels, politicians
and writers varied in personality, status and background, but all
played a part in forming a new nation and hammering out the
framework for the young democracy.

Contents

George Washington Alexander Hamilton Benjamin Franklin
John Adams Samuel Adams Thomas Jefferson James Madison John Jay
Additional Founders

Without them, there would have been no United States of America.
The Founding Fathers, a group of predominantly wealthy plantation
owners and businessmen, united 13 disparate colonies, fought for
independence from Britain and penned a series of influential
governing documents that steer the country to this day.

All the Founding Fathers, including the first four U.S.
presidents, at one point considered themselves British subjects.
But they revolted against the restrictive rule of King George
III—outlining their grievances in the Declaration of Independence,
a powerful (albeit incomplete) call for freedom and equality—and
won a stunning military victory over what was then the world’s
preeminent superpower.

Which founding father is the father of the
Constitution? James Madison James
Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution because of his
pivotal role in the document’s drafting as well as its
ratification. Madison also drafted the first 10 amendments — the
Bill of Rights.

The Founders proved equally adept later on in peacetime. When
the federal government tottered under the Articles of
Confederation, prominent citizens met anew to hammer out the U.S.
Constitution, overcoming major areas of disagreement between large
and small states and Southern and Northern ones to form a stable
political system. Showing foresight, they included a Bill of
Rights, which enshrined many civil liberties into law and provided
a blueprint for other emerging democracies.

There’s no official consensus on who should be considered a
Founding Father, and some historians object to the term altogether.
On the whole, though, it’s applied to those leaders who initiated
the Revolutionary War and framed the Constitution. Here are eight
of the most influential characters in America’s origin story:
George Washington

Before he fought against the British, George Washington fought
for the British, serving as a commander in the French and Indian
War. A prosperous Virginia farmer who owned hundreds of slaves, he
came to resent the various taxes and restrictions being imposed on
the colonies by the British crown.

Once the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he was placed in
charge of the Continental Army and quickly suffered a
near-disastrous defeat at the Battle of Brooklyn. More defeats
followed—all in all, Washington lost more battles than he won.
Nonetheless, he kept his ragtag troops together even through a
freezing winter at Valley Forge and, with the help of his French
allies, was able to expel the British by 1783.

Washington then returned to Virginia intent on resuming his
career as a farmer. But he was persuaded to re-enter politics as
head of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, believing
that a stronger federal government was needed to preserve the
nation. In 1789, Washington was overwhelmingly elected the first
president of the United States. He is aptly known as the “Father of
His Country.”

Alexander Hamilton

A poor, illegitimate orphan, Alexander Hamilton emigrated as a
teenager from the British West Indies to New York. Rising to
prominence as an aide-de-camp to Washington during the
Revolutionary War, he became an impassioned supporter of a strong
central government.

After attending the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he wrote
the majority of the highly persuasive Federalist Papers, which
argued for the Constitution’s ratification. Washington then tapped
him to serve as the first U.S. treasury secretary, a position he
used to push for the creation of a national bank. Later
immortalized on the $10 bill, Hamilton was killed in an 1804 duel
with his bitter rival Aaron Burr, the sitting vice president.

Benjamin Franklin

Early America’s foremost Renaissance man, Benjamin Franklin was
a skilled author, printer, scientist, inventor and diplomat despite
a formal education that ended at age 10. When not designing
bifocals, harnessing electricity, playing music or publishing Poor
Richard’s Almanack, he worked constantly on civic projects to
improve his adopted city of Philadelphia.

In the beginning stages of the American Revolution, Franklin was
appointed to the five-member committee that drafted the Declaration
of Independence. He then traveled to France, where he secured
French assistance for the war effort and helped negotiate the 1783
Treaty of Paris, the official end to the conflict. Just prior to
his death, Franklin served as a sort of elder statesman at the
Constitutional Convention.

John Adams

A distinguished Massachusetts lawyer, John Adams became a
relatively early proponent of the revolutionary cause. Just like
Franklin, he served on the committee that wrote the Declaration of
Independence, journeyed overseas to secure French military aid and
helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris. He chaired other key
committees as well and even found time to draft the Massachusetts
Constitution (which is still in use).

After about 10 years of diplomatic service abroad, Adams
returned home in 1788 and subsequently became vice president under
Washington. Following Washington’s two terms, he was then elected
president, serving from 1797 to 1801. In a striking
coincidence, Adams and his friend-turned-rival-turned-friend Thomas
Jefferson both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Samuel Adams

The second cousin of John Adams, Samuel Adams was a political
firebrand who drummed up immense opposition to British policies in
Boston, a hotbed of the resistance. Believing that the colonists
were subject to “taxation without representation,” he joined the
Sons of Liberty, an underground dissident group that at times
resorted to tarring and feathering British loyalists.

Adams likely planned the 1773 Boston Tea Party, and in 1775 his
attempted arrest helped spark the Battles of Lexington and Concord,
the first skirmish of the Revolutionary War. Unlike many of the
Founders, Adams was staunchly anti-slavery. He signed the
Declaration of Independence and went on to serve as governor of
Massachusetts.

Thomas Jefferson

Well educated and prosperous, Thomas Jefferson was a Virginia
lawyer and politician who came to believe the British Parliament
held no authority over the 13 colonies. In 1776, he was given the
immense task of writing the Declaration of Independence, in which
he famously declared that “all men are created equal” and “that
they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,”
such as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (A lifelong
slaveholder, he did not extend these concepts to
African-Americans.)

As secretary of state under Washington, Jefferson clashed
constantly with Hamilton over foreign policy and the role of
government. He later served as vice president to John Adams prior
to becoming president, himself, in 1801.

James Madison

A close friend of Jefferson’s, James Madison likewise grew up on
a Virginia plantation and served in the state legislature. At the
1787 Constitutional Convention, he proved to be perhaps the most
influential delegate, developing a plan to divide the federal
government into three branches—legislative, executive and
judicial—each with checks on its power. This plan, which was
largely adopted, earned him the moniker “Father of the
Constitution.”

Madison next co-authored the Federalist Papers and, as a U.S.
congressman, became the driving force behind the Bill of Rights. He
was elected president in 1808 after serving as Jefferson’s
secretary of state.

John Jay

Not nearly as recognized as his major Founder cohorts, John Jay
nonetheless played a pivotal role in the creation of the United
States. A lawyer, he originally preferred reconciling with Britain
rather than fighting for independence. Once war broke out, however,
he wholeheartedly joined the side of the colonists, serving, among
other roles, as a diplomat to Spain and linking up with Franklin
and Adams to negotiate the Treaty of Paris.

Upon returning to the United States, Jay served as secretary of
foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation and authored a
few of the Federalist Papers. In 1789, he became the first chief
justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and six years later he was
elected governor of New York.

Additional Founders

Many other figures have also been cited as Founding Fathers (or
Mothers).

These include John Hancock, best known for his flashy signature
on the Declaration of Independence; Gouverneur Morris, who wrote
much of the Constitution; Thomas Paine, the British-born author of
Common Sense; Paul Revere, a Boston silversmith whose “midnight
ride” warned of approaching redcoats;

George Mason, who helped craft the Constitution but ultimately
refused to sign it; Charles Carroll, the lone Catholic to sign the
Declaration of Independence; Patrick Henry, who famously declared
“Give me liberty, or give me death!”;

John Marshall, a Revolutionary War veteran and longtime chief
justice of the Supreme Court; and Abigail Adams, who implored her
husband, John, to “remember the ladies” while shaping the new
country.