Founding Fathers of the United States

Founding Fathers is the term by which a group of common citizens—merchants, military men, lawyers, printers, politicians and clergy—became political leaders and signed the Declaration of Independence, fought in the American Revolutionary War, and established the Constitution of the United States. The number of founders is large, and while some rose to political and historic prominence, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John and Samuel Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton, a majority remain today in obscurity. Nevertheless, even lesser known Founding Fathers such as Charles Pinckney and Samuel Chase were very influential in the process of creating the new republic. The Founding Fathers are divided into those who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, those who signed the Articles of Confederation, and those who, as part of the Constitutional Convention, participated in drafting and framing the Constitution of the United States.

Background

The transition of the United States from thirteen British colonies to an independent American republic was a time of territorial expansion, religious revival, the rise of nationalist sentiments, and the development of American democracy. The era of the early United States republic ranged from 1789 to the War of 1812.

The American War of Independence—also known as the American Revolutionary War—started in 1775 between the British Empire and the thirteen colonies, which eventually became the republic of the United States. In time other nations—Spain, France, and the Netherlands—joined the United States in its war against the British Crown. It ended in 1783, but by 1790 the republic was still a fledgling nation. The Declaration of Independence, signed by the Founding Fathers, came into effect gradually. Thomas Paine argued in his seminal monograph Common Sense (1776) that in order to be taken seriously by European powers, a formal declaration of independence was required. The Spanish and French empires could not be expected to side with rebels against a legitimate monarch. A declaration of independence, then, would be necessary in order to negotiate a peace with Great Britain and establish a republic.

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence and later another committee to draft a constitution of the union of the states. The Declaration of Independence, which established the independence of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain, was ratified on July 4, 1776.

The final draft of the Articles of Confederation was ready by 1777 and was used as the system of government by Congress. The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution. It was, in effect, an agreement among the founding states that the United States of America was a confederation of sovereign states. The Articles also served to provide national and international legitimacy for the Continental Congress to lead the Revolutionary War, establish diplomatic relations with Europe, and deal with domestic issues. However, they lacked executive, judicial, and taxing powers. The Articles were replaced by the US Constitution by an act of Congress on March 4, 1789.

Overview

During the decade after the War of Independence, the Founding Fathers sought to combine Enlightenment ideals established in the Declaration of Independence with the articles of the Constitution in order to form a practical system of governance. The process was fraught with conflict and tension. For example, some tried to pressure Congress into dealing with the problem of slavery while others attempted to block the issue.

The Constitutional Convention (also known as the Philadelphia or the General Convention) took place in 1787 in order to address issues of governance of the republic of the United States, united under the Articles of Confederation. The founders believed the new nation should have a formal written constitution, even though many other nations lacked one. In order to transition from a group of rebels into a legitimate republic, the United States of America needed international recognition for their nation and the support of foreign allies. The new Constitution provided the underpinnings for a stronger government; it established provisions for a chief executive or president, courts, and taxing powers—elements the Articles lacked. The first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791. The Bill of Rights guarantee personal freedoms, such as the freedom of religion, speech, and free assembly; limit the power of government in judicial and other proceedings; and reserve some powers not delegated by Congress to the government of the United States to be held by individual states and the public.

The transition from colonies to republic was marked by disorder and change in all aspects of life—politics, religion, society, economy, and culture. The founders of the new government had to frame and create a new nation and its charters of governance—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and others—in an environment of war and tumultuous social adjustment. The Founding Fathers had high expectations for the future of the nation, but few of their hopes worked out quite as expected. Some wanted the new republic to evolve into a strong military nation like the French and British empires; others wanted the United States to stay a rural agricultural nation that was markedly different from European nations they viewed as obsolete and oppressive. However, by 1815 the United States had become a unique entity, which neither group had expected. Many of the Founding Fathers, for example, expected to see the end of slavery on American soil; instead, despite the end of slavery in the North, the institution of slavery was stronger in early eighteenth-century America than it had been before independence.

The adoption of federal and state constitutions presented practical and conceptual problems throughout the ensuing centuries. Among the issues the political successors of the Founding Fathers have had to contend with are federalism, slavery, equality, separation of church and state, limits to executive powers, voting rights, the right to bear arms, and other issues that continue to form the founders’ expectations for the United States.

Bibliography

Bernstein, R. B. The Founding Fathers Reconsidered. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.

Ellis, Joseph J. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage, 2002. Print.

Hogeland, William. Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1–July 4, 1776. New York: Simon, 2011. Print.

Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

Meyerson, Michael L. Endowed by Our Creator: The Birth of Religious Freedom in America. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. Print.

Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Sunstein, Cass R., ed. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2003. Print.

Tsesis, Alexander. For Liberty and Equality: The Life and Times of the Declaration of Independence. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Winchester, Simon. The Men Who United the States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible. New York: Harper, 2013. Print.

Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.