“Founding Fathers of the United States”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Founding Fathers of the United States, or simply the Founding Fathers, were a group of philosophers, politicians, and writers who led the American Revolution against the Kingdom of Great Britain. Most were descendants of colonists settled in the Thirteen Colonies in North America.

Historian Richard B. Morris in 1973 identified the following seven figures as the key Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.^[2]^[3] 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.^[4] Jay, Adams, and Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783) that would end the American Revolutionary War.^[5] Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and was 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. Jay was the nation's first Chief Justice, Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury, and Franklin was America's most senior diplomat, and later the governmental leader of Pennsylvania.

The term Founding Fathers is sometimes used to refer to the Signers of the embossed version of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.^[6] Signers should not be confused with the term Framers; the Framers are defined by the National Archives as those 55 individuals who were appointed to be delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and took part in drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States. Of the 55 Framers, only 39 were signers of the Constitution.^[7]^[8] Two further groupings of Founding Fathers include: 1) those who signed the Continental Association, a trade ban and one of the colonists' first collective volleys protesting British control and the Intolerable Acts in 1774,^[9] or 2) those who signed the Articles of Confederation, the first U.S. constitutional document.^[10]

The phrase "Founding Fathers" is a 20th-century appellation, coined by Warren G. Harding in 1916. Prior to, and during the 19th century, they were referred to as simply the "Fathers". The term has been used to describe the founders and first settlers of the original royal colonies.^[11]^[12]

Background

The First Continental Congress met briefly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1774, consisting of fifty-six delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies (not including Georgia) that became the United States of America. Among them was George Washington, who would soon be drawn out of military retirement to command the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Also in attendance was Patrick Henry, and John Adams, who like all delegates were elected by their respective colonial assemblies. Other delegates included Samuel Adams from Massachusetts, John Dickinson from Pennsylvania and New York's John Jay. This congress in addition to formulating appeals to the British crown, established the Continental Association to administer boycott actions against Britain.

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.^[13] New arrivals included Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, John Hancock of Massachusetts, and John Witherspoon of New Jersey. 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.^[14] The second Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Witherspoon was the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration. He also signed the Articles of Confederation and attended the New Jersey (1787) convention that ratified the Federal Constitution.^[15]

The newly founded country of the United States had to create a new government to replace the British Parliament. The U.S. adopted the Articles of Confederation, a declaration that established 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.^[16] The Constitutional Convention took place during the summer of 1787, in Philadelphia.^[17] 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.

Social background and commonalities

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

Almost all of them were leaders in their communities. Many were also prominent in national affairs. Virtually every one had taken part in the American Revolution; at least 29 had served in the Continental Army, most of them in positions of command. Scholars have examined the collective biography of them as well as the signers of the Declaration and the Constitution.^[20]

Education

Many of the Founding Fathers attended or held degrees 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 College, the College of William and Mary, Yale College and University of Pennsylvania. Some had previously been home schooled or obtained early instruction from private tutors or academies.^[21] Others had studied abroad. Ironically, Benjamin Franklin who had little formal education himself would ultimately establish the College of Philadelphia based on European models (1740); "Penn" would have the first medical school (1765) in the thirteen colonies where another Founder, Benjamin Rush would eventually teach.

With a limited number of professional schools established in the U.S., Founders also sought advanced degrees from traditional institutions in England and Scotland such as the University of Edinburgh, the University of St. Andrews, and the University of Glasgow.

Colonial colleges attended

Advanced degrees and apprenticeships

Doctors of Medicine

Theology

Legal apprenticeships

Several like John Jay, James Wilson, John Williams and George Wythe^[26] were trained as lawyers through apprenticeships in the colonies while a few trained at the Inns of Court in London.

Self-taught or little formal education

Franklin, Washington, John Williams and Henry 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 at least nine were born in other parts of the British Empire:

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

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.^[27]

Finances

Historian Caroline Robbins in 1977 examined the status of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence and concluded:

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 or elected President of that body.

Nearly all of the 55 Constitutional Convention delegates had some experience in colonial and state government, and the majority had held county and local offices.^[31] Those who lacked national congressional experience were Bassett, Blair, Brearly, Broom, Davie, Dayton, Alexander Martin, Luther Martin, Mason, McClurg, Paterson, Charles Pinckney, Strong, and Yates.

Religion

Franklin T. Lambert (2003) has examined the religious affiliations and beliefs of some of the Founders. 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 Protestants, and two were Roman Catholics (D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons).^[32] 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.^[32]

A few prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical Christians such as Thomas Jefferson,^[33]^[34]^[35] who constructed the Jefferson Bible, and Benjamin Franklin.^[36]

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".^[37]

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.^[38]

Ownership of slaves and position on slavery

The founding fathers were not unified on the issue of slavery. In her study of Thomas Jefferson, historian Annette Gordon-Reed discusses this topic, "Others of the founders held slaves, but no other founder drafted the charter for freedom".^[39] In addition to Jefferson, George Washington, John Jay and many other of the Founding Fathers practiced slavery but were also conflicted by the institution which many saw as immoral and politically divisive.^[40] Conversely, many founders such as Samuel Adams and John Adams were against slavery their entire lives. Benjamin Rush wrote a pamphlet in 1773 which harshly condemned slavery and beseeched the colonists to petition the king and put an end to the British African Company of Merchants which kept slavery and the slave trade going.

Franklin, though he was a key founder of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society^[41] originally owned slaves whom he later manumitted. While serving in the Rhode Island Assembly, Stephen Hopkins introduced one of the earliest anti-slavery laws in the colonies, and John Jay would try unsuccessfully to abolish slavery as early as 1777 in the State of New York.^[42] He nonetheless 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—an signed into law an abolition law; fully ending forced labor as of 1827. He freed his own slaves in 1798. Alexander Hamilton opposed slavery, as his experiences in life left him very familiar with slavery and its effect on slaves and on slaveholders,^[43] although he did negotiate slave transactions for his wife's family, the Schuylers.^[44] John Adams, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Paine never owned slaves.^[45]

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.^[46] However, the domestic slave trade was allowed, for expansion, or for diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory.^[46]

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; for example, Patrick Henry of Virginia thought that state politics were far more interesting and important than national politics, though during the ratification controversy of 1787–1788 he claimed, "I smelled a rat." Rhode Island did not send delegates because of its politicians' 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.^[48]

Spouses and children

Only four (Baldwin, Gilman, Jenifer, and Alexander Martin) were lifelong bachelors. Many of their spouses, like 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.^[49]

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. George Washington, "The Father of our Country,"^[50] had no biological descendants.

Charters of freedom and historical documents of the United States

The National Archives and Records Administration also known as NARA, defines U.S. Founding Documents, or Charters of Freedom, as the Declaration of Independence (1776), The Constitution (1787) and the Bill of Rights (1791). These original instruments which represent the philosophy of the United States are housed in Washington, D.C. in the NARA Rotunda.^[51]

The Library of Congress further identifies the Articles of Confederation, also preserved at NARA, as a primary U.S. document.^[52] The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the United States until its replacement by the present Constitution on March 4, 1789.

Only one man, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, signed all four of formative documents of the United States – the Continental Association (CA), Declaration of Independence (DI), Articles of Confederation (AC), and the United States Constitution (USC). Figures who signed one or more include:

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.^[53] Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe served in highest U.S. office of President. Jay would be appointed as Chief Justice of the United States and later elected to two terms as Governor of New York.

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.^[49]

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.

Youth and longevity

Many of the Founding Fathers were under 40 years old at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776: Alexander Hamilton was 19, Aaron Burr was 20, Gouverneur Morris was 24. The oldest were Benjamin Franklin, 70, and Samuel Whittemore, 81.^[54]

Secretary Charles Thomson lived to the age of 94. Johnson died at 92. John Adams lived to the age of 90. A few – Franklin, Jay, Jefferson, Madison, Hugh Williamson, and George Wythe – lived into their eighties. Approximately 16 died in their seventies, 21 in their sixties, 8 in their fifties, and 5 in their forties. Three (Alexander Hamilton, Richard Dobbs Spaight and Button Gwinnett) were killed in duels.

Friends and political adversaries John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day – July 4, 1826.^[55]

The last remaining founders, also called the "Last of the Romans", lived well into the nineteenth century.^[56]

Other notable people of the period

The following men and women who had little or nothing to do with actually setting up the American federal government are occasionally called "founders" of the United States by some 21st-century writers:{{cn|reason=Why whom? Is that what the following cite indicates? If so, please elaborate for the reader.|date=March 2019}}

Legacy

Institutions formed by Founders

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

Scholarship on the Founders

Articles and books by twenty-first 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 biography of George Washington. His bestselling book about Alexander Hamilton inspired the blockbuster musical of the same name.

Joseph J. Ellis – According to 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.

Noted collections of the Founding Fathers

In stage and film

The Founding Fathers were portrayed in the Tony Award winning musical 1776, a stage production about the debates over, and eventual adoption of, the Declaration of Independence; the popular performance was later turned into the 1972 film

More recently, several of the Founding Fathers – Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Laurens and Burr – were reimagined in Hamilton, an acclaimed production about the life of Alexander Hamilton, with music, lyrics and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda.The show was inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by historian Ron Chernow. The musical won 11 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.^[91]

Children's books

In their 2015 children's book, The Founding Fathers author Jonah Winter and illustrator Barry Blitt categorized 14 leading patriots into two teams based on their contributions to the formation of America - the Varsity Squad (Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, John Adams, Madison, Jay, and Hamilton) and the Junior Varsity Squad (Sam Adams, Hancock, Henry, Morris, Marshall, Rush, and Paine).^[92]

See also

Notes

1. ^{{cite web|title=American Revolution: Key to Declaration of Independence|url=http://www.americanrevolution.org/deckey.php|access-date=April 6, 2017}}
2. ^Richard B. Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).
3. ^{{cite web|author=Kettler, Sarah|title=The Founding Fathers: Who Were They Really?|url=http://www.biography.com/news/founding-fathers-quotes-facts|publisher=Biography|accessdate= April 5, 2017}}
4. ^{{cite web|title=About America, The Constitution of the United States|publisher=World Book|access-date=September 17, 2017|url=https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/30145/publications-english/constitution.pdf}}
5. ^{{cite web|author=PBS NewsHour|title=Forgotten Founding Father|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/forgotten-founding-father/}}
6. ^{{cite web|title=Signers of the Declaration|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/declaration|publisher=National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior|access-date=April 7, 2017}}
7. ^{{cite web|author=National Archives|title=Meet the Framers of the Constitution|url=https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/founding-fathers}}
8. ^{{cite web|author=US Constitution Online|title=The Framers|url=https://www.usconstitution.net/constframe.html}}
9. ^{{cite web|publisher=Carpenter's Hall |author=Carl G. Karsch |title=The First Continental Congress: A Dangerous Journey Begins |access-date=April 10, 2017 |url=http://www.ushistory.org/carpentershall/history/congress.htm |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118024728/http://www.ushistory.org/carpentershall/history/congress.htm |archivedate=January 18, 2012}}
10. ^Stanfield, Jack. America's Founding Fathers: Who Are They? Thumbnail Sketches of 164 Patriots (Universal-Publishers, 2001).
11. ^{{Cite book|last1=Parham|first1=C. P.|title=From Great Wilderness to Seaway Towns: A Comparative History of Cornwall, Ontario, and Massena, New York, 1784-2001|url=https://books.google.com/?id=kpiav81DuiQC&pg=PA7&dq=Founding+Fathers++settlers++new+england#v=onepage&q=Founding%20Fathers%20%20settlers%20%20new%20england&f=false|publisher=SUNY Press, 2012 (chapter 1, page 7) |accessdate=November 20, 2017 |quote=The founding fathers of Cornwall and ....|isbn=9780791485675|date=February 2012}}
12. ^Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle American History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), 16.
13. ^Burnett, Continental Congress, 64–67.
14. ^Fowler, Baron of Beacon Hill, 189.
15. ^{{cite web|title=Signers of the Declaration|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/declaration/bio54.htm|publisher=National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior|accessdate=April 24, 2014|page=Biography #54}}
16. ^{{cite web |url=http://ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2327 |title=Confederation Congress |publisher=Ohio Historical Society |accessdate=October 23, 2010}}
17. ^{{cite book|title=American Government: Political Development and Institutional Change|author=Calvin C. Jillson|edition=5th|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2009|isbn=978-0-203-88702-8|page=31}}
18. ^Caroline Robbins, "Decision in '76: Reflections on the 56 Signers." Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Vol. 89 pp 72-87, quote at p 86
19. ^{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Richard D. |title=The Founding Fathers of 1776 and 1787: A Collective View |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |date=July 1976 |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=465 |doi=10.2307/1921543}}
20. ^See Brown (19764); Martin (19739); "Data on the Framers of the Constitution," at
21. ^Brown (1976); Harris (1969)
22. ^{{cite web|title=The Alma Maters of Our Founding Fathers|access-date=April 7, 2017|url=https://www.universitylanguage.com/blog/02/the-alma-maters-of-our-founding-fathers/}}
23. ^{{cite web | url=http://www.columbia.edu/content/history.html | title=A Brief History of Columbia | publisher=Columbia University | year=2011 | accessdate= 2011-04-14}}
24. ^{{cite web|title=The University of Glasgow Story James Wilson|access-date=March 26, 2018|url=http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH24021&type=P/}}
25. ^{{cite web|publisher=Penn University Archives and Records Center|title=Benjamin Rush (1746 - 1813) access-date=April 9, 2017|url=http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1700s/rush_benj.html}}
26. ^{{cite web|title=George Wythe|publisher=Colonial Williamsburg|access-date=April 9, 2017|url=https://www.history.org/almanack/people/bios/biowythe.cfm}}
27. ^¹Greene (1973).
28. ^Brown (1976).
29. ^Caroline Robbins, "Decision in '76: Reflections on the 56 Signers" Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society Vol. 89 (1977), pp. 72-87 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25080810 online] quoting page 83.
30. ^William R. Davie, Blackwell P. Robinson. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1957.
31. ^Martin (1973); Greene (1973)
32. ^¹{{cite book |title=The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |last=Lambert |first=Franklin T. |authorlink=Franklin T. Lambert |date=2003 |publication-date=2006 |isbn=978-0691126029 }}
33. ^Letter to Alexander von Humboldt, December 6, 1813 "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government,"
34. ^Letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814 "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
35. ^The Religion of Thomas Jefferson {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123151450/http://ecollege.edu/about-us/veritas-aeterna/383-religion-of-jefferson |date=November 23, 2011 }} Retrieved July 9, 2011
36. ^Quoted in The New England Currant (July 23, 1722), "Silence Dogood, No. 9; Corruptio optimi est pessima." "And it is a sad Observation, that when the People too late see their Error, yet the Clergy still persist in their Encomiums on the Hypocrite; and when he happens to die for the Good of his Country, without leaving behind him the Memory of one good Action, he shall be sure to have his Funeral Sermon stuff'd with Pious Expressions which he dropt at such a Time, and at such a Place, and on such an Occasion; than which nothing can be more prejudicial to the Interest of Religion, nor indeed to the Memory of the Person deceas'd. The Reason of this Blindness in the Clergy is, because they are honourably supported (as they ought to be) by their People, and see nor feel nothing of the Oppression which is obvious and burdensome to every one else."
37. ^{{Cite book |title=The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution |isbn=978-0700620210 |first=Gregg L. |last=Frazer |publisher=University Press of Kansas |date=2012 }}
38. ^David L. Holmes in The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (Oxford University Press, 2006)
39. ^¹Annette Gordon-Reed, Engaging Jefferson: Blacks and the Founding Father, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 171-182
40. ^{{cite web|title=The Founders and Slavery: John Jay Saves the Day|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/07/founders-and-slavery |publisher=The Economist|accessdate= April 5, 2017}}
41. ^¹{{cite book |first=William D. |last=Wright |title=Critical Reflections on Black History |year=2002 |page=125|publisher=Praeger Publishers |location=West Port, Connecticut}}
42. ^The Selected Papers of John Jay, Columbia University, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/dev/jay/JaySlavery.html
43. ^{{cite journal |url=http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibition.org/about/teachers.html |last=Horton |first=James O. |year=2004 |title=Alexander Hamilton: Slavery and Race in a Revolutionary Generation |journal=New York Journal of American History |issue=3 |access-date=October 29, 2016}}
44. ^{{cite web |author=Magness, Phillip |title=Alexander Hamilton's Exaggerated Abolitionism |access-date=April 6, 2017 |url=http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153639}}
45. ^{{cite web|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|title=The Founding Fathers and Slavery|access-date=April 9, 2017|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery-1269536}}
46. ^¹²³⁴⁵{{cite journal |last=Freehling |first=William W. |title=The Founding Fathers and Slavery |date=February 1972 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=77 |pages=81–93 |number=1 |doi=10.2307/1856595|jstor=1856595 }}
47. ^¹{{cite book |title=The Cambridge History of Law in America| year=2008 |page=278}}
48. ^See the discussion of the Convention in Clinton L. Rossiter, 1787: The Grand Convention (New York: Macmillan, 1966; reprint ed., with new foreword by Richard B. Morris, New York: W. W. Norton, 1987).
49. ^¹Griswold, Rufus (1855), The Republican Court, or, American Society in the Days of Washington, D. Appleton & Co.
50. ^{{cite web|author=George Washington's Mount Vernon|title=Father of His Country|access-date=April 6, 2017|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/father-of-his-country/}}
51. ^{{cite web|author=National Archives|title=America's Founding Documents|access-date=April 6, 2017|url=https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs}}
52. ^{{cite web|publisher= Library of Congress|title=Articles of Confederation|access-date=April 10, 2017|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html}}
53. ^Martin (1973)
54. ^{{cite web|author=Andrlik, Todd|title=How Old Were the Leaders of the American Revolution on July 4, 1776?|url= http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/08/how_old_were_the_founding_father_the_leaders_of_the_american_revolution.html}}
55. ^{{cite web|author=History|title=Thomas Jefferson and John Adams Die|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-jefferson-and-john-adams-die}}
56. ^{{cite book|author1=Elizabeth Fox-Genovese|author2=Eugene D. Genovese|title=The Mind of the Master Class: History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iaSeHEByLnUC&pg=PA278|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=278|isbn=9780521850650}}
57. ^{{Cite journal | last1 = McWilliams | first1 = J. | title = The Faces of Ethan Allen: 1760-1860 | journal = The New England Quarterly | volume = 49 | issue = 2 | pages = 257–282 | doi = 10.2307/364502 | year = 1976 | pmid = | pmc = | jstor = 364502 }}
58. ^Newman, Richard. Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers (NYU Press, 2009).
59. ^Jane Goodall (27 August 2013). Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants. Grand Central Publishing. pp. 60–61. {{ISBN|978-1-4555-1321-5}}.
60. ^Ballenas, Carl. Images of America: Jamaica (Arcadia Publishing, 2011).
61. ^Holmes, David. The Faiths of the Founding Fathers. (Oxford University Press US, 2006).
62. ^Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters, What Made the Founding Fathers Different. (New York: Penguin Books, 2007) 225–242.
63. ^¹²³⁴R. B. Bernstein, The Founding Fathers Reconsidered (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
64. ^{{cite book|author=Stephen Yafa|title=Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DZoxe0aO9AEC&pg=PA75|year=2006|publisher=Penguin|page=75|isbn=9780143037224}}
65. ^¹²³⁴Dungan, Nicholas. Gallatin: America's Swiss Founding Father (NYU Press 2010)
66. ^Roberts, Cokie. "Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation". Harper Perennial, 2005
67. ^Roberts, Cokie. "Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation". Harper, 2008
68. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸Buchanan, John. "Founding Fighters: The Battlefield Leaders Who Made American Independence (review)". The Journal of Military History (Volume 71, Number 2, April 2007), pp. 522–524.
69. ^¹²³⁴Encyclopædia Britannica. Founding fathers: the essential guide to the men who made America (John Wiley and Sons, 2007).
70. ^{{cite book| last=Broadwater| first=Jeff| title=George Mason, Forgotten Founder| year=2006| issue=Kindle| location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina| publisher=University of North Carolina Press| ref={{sfnRef|Broadwater}}| isbn=978-0-8078-3053-6| oclc=67239589}}
71. ^LaGumina, Salvatore. The Italian American experience: an encyclopedia, page 361 (Taylor & Francis, 2000).
72. ^{{cite book | last = Unger | first = Harlow | title =James Monroe: The Last Founding Father | publisher = Da Capo Press | location = New York | year = 2009 |isbn=978-0-306-81808-0}}
73. ^{{cite book|title=The Gendering of American Politics: Founding Mothers, Founding Fathers, and Political Patriarchy |page=xi |first=Mark E. |last=Kann|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=1999|isbn=978-0-275-96112-1}}
74. ^{{Cite journal | title = Founding Father Thomas Paine: He Genuinely Abhorred Slavery | journal = The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education | issue = 48 | pages = 45 | doi = 10.2307/25073236| year = 2005 | pmid = | pmc = | jstor = 25073236 | doi-broken-date = 2018-09-23 }}
75. ^David Braff, "Forgotten Founding Father: The Impact of Thomas Paine," in Joyce Chumbley. ed., Thomas Paine: In Search of the Common Good (2009) pp. 39–43
76. ^Burstein, Andrew. "Politics and Personalities: Garry Wills takes a new look at a forgotten founder, slavery and the shaping of America", Chicago Tribune (November 09, 2003): "Forgotten founders such as Pickering and Morris made as many waves as those whose faces stare out from our currency."
77. ^{{cite web|url=http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/documents/fathers/virginia.html|title=Founding Fathers: Virginia|publisher=FindLaw Constitutional Law Center|year=2008|accessdate=2008-11-14}}
78. ^Schwartz, Laurens R. Jews and the American Revolution: Haym Solomon and Others, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1987.
79. ^¹Rafael, Ray. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Founding Fathers: And the Birth of Our Nation (Penguin, 2011).
80. ^Kendall, Joshua. The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture (Penguin 2011).
81. ^{{Cite journal | last1 = Wright | first1 = R. E. | title = Thomas Willing (1731-1821): Philadelphia Financier and Forgotten Founding Father | journal = Pennsylvania History | volume = 63 | issue = 4 | pages = 525–560 | doi = 10.2307/27773931|jstor=27773931| year = 1996 | pmid = | pmc = | doi-broken-date = 2018-09-23 }}
82. ^"A Patriot of Early New England", New York Times (December 20, 1931). This book review referred to Wingate as one of the "Fathers" of the United States, per the book title.
83. ^The New Yorker, Volume I, page 398 (September 10, 1836): "'The Last of the Romans' — This was said of Madison at the time of his decease, but there is one other person who seems to have some claims to this honorable distinction. Paine Wingate of Stratham, N.H. still survives."
84. ^{{cite web|publisher=Society of the Cincinnati|title=The Founding of the Society, 1783–1784|access-date=April 9, 2017|url=http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/about/history/founding}}
85. ^{{cite web|title=History:The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut|url=http://theconnecticutsociety.org/history/}}
86. ^Joseph J. Ellis; Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams. (2001) p. 214.
87. ^{{cite web|publisher=The New York Times|author=Jennifer Schuessler|title=Up From the Family Basement, a Little-Seen Hamilton Trove|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/arts/design/alexander-hamilton-documents-sothebys.html}}
88. ^{{cite-web|publisher=The New York Times|author=Joanne B. Freeman|title=The Long History of Political Idiocy|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/opinion/the-long-history-of-political-idiocy.html}}
89. ^{{cite web|publisher=Slate|author=Joanne B. Freeman|title=How Hamilton Uses History: What Lin-Manuel Miranda Included in His Portrait of a Heroic, Complicated Founding Father—and What He Left Out|access-date=April 9, 2017|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/11/how_lin_manuel_miranda_used_real_history_in_writing_hamilton.html}}
90. ^{{cite web|publisher=The Baffler|author=Chris Bray|title=Tip and Gip Sip and Quip-The politics of never|access-date=April 11, 2017|url=https://thebaffler.com/salvos/tip-and-gip-sip-and-quip}}
91. ^{{cite web|publisher=Playbill|author=Robert Viagas|title=Hamilton Tops Tony Awards With 11 Wins|access-date=April 9, 2017|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/tony-time-its-broadways-biggest-night}}
92. ^Winter, Jonah and Blitt, Barry, The Founding Fathers!Those Horse-Ridin', Fiddle-Playin', Book-Readin', Gun-Totin' Gentlemen Who Started America Simon and Schuster, New York (2015)