Jonah Patel
The Founding Fathers of the United States were political leaders who participated in the American Revolution. They signed the Declaration of Independence, took part in the Revolutionary War, and established the Constitution. The Framers of the Constitution were delegates to the Constitutional Convention and helped draft the Constitution of the United States. The five selected framers of the Constitution were George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.
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What You'll Learn
- George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and president of the convention
- John Adams, member of the Committee of Five
- Thomas Jefferson, member of the Committee of Five
- James Madison, recognised as the founding era's foremost proponent of liberties
- Alexander Hamilton, key author of the Federalist Papers
George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and president of the convention
George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and president of the Constitutional Convention, played a crucial role in the founding of the United States. Washington's military experience and leadership were instrumental in the American Revolution and the fight for independence from the British Crown.
Washington's appointment as commander-in-chief came at a pivotal moment in the colonies' quest for independence. On April 18, 1775, with the American Revolution already underway, Major Pitcairn of the British Army fired upon the American militia assembled on Lexington Common. The Continental Congress recognised the need for strong military leadership and sought a commander-in-chief for the Continental Army. On June 19, 1775, George Washington, a Virginian with valuable military experience, was commissioned as commander-in-chief. This appointment unified the colonies, as Washington was the preferred choice of the southern colonies.
Washington's experiences in the French and Indian War, where he served the British Crown against the French, proved invaluable in the American Revolution. He assumed command of the Continental Army in Cambridge on July 3, 1775, and his leadership was instrumental in the colonies' fight for freedom. Washington's skills as a military leader cannot be overstated, and his ability to adapt his strategies to the unique challenges of warfare on the American continent contributed significantly to the ultimate success of the revolution.
In addition to his role as commander-in-chief, George Washington also served as president of the Constitutional Convention. The Constitutional Convention, comprising 55 delegates, was responsible for drafting the Constitution of the United States. Washington's participation in this convention demonstrates his commitment to establishing a strong and unified nation. While the specific contributions of each delegate are not comprehensively documented, it is clear that Washington's presence and influence as a respected leader played a pivotal role in shaping the direction of the young nation.
George Washington's legacy extends beyond his military accomplishments and his role in the Constitutional Convention. He is also widely remembered as the first President of the United States. Washington's leadership during the nation's formative years helped lay the foundation for the principles and ideals upon which the country was built. His strong educational background, including his self-taught military strategies and his apprenticeship experiences, contributed to his effectiveness as a leader. Washington's role in the American Revolution, his command of the Continental Army, and his presence in the Constitutional Convention, solidify his place as one of the key Founding Fathers of the United States.
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John Adams, member of the Committee of Five
John Adams, a member of the Committee of Five, was a Founding Father of the United States and a key figure in the American Revolution. Born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1735, Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1755 and was admitted to the Suffolk County Bar to practice law in 1758. He became a prominent lawyer by 1770 and played a pivotal role in the success of the American Revolution.
Adams was a strong advocate for independence from Great Britain and served as a Massachusetts delegate to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. He was also a member of the Committee of Five, which drafted the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. The committee was composed of Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Adams played a major role in the drafting process, persuading the committee to choose Jefferson as the primary writer. He also chaired 25 committees during the Second Continental Congress, more than any other congressman.
Adams was a leading proponent of independence from Great Britain and believed that separation from the monarchy must be accompanied by the adoption of written constitutions. He advocated for a separation of powers between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government. Adams also contributed to the development of the Massachusetts Constitution, which remains the oldest functioning written constitution in the world. He was elected to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1779 to establish a new constitution for the state.
Adams' constitutional ideas influenced the language used in developing the U.S. Constitution. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and helped draft the Constitution of the United States. Adams' experience and expertise in government and law played a significant role in shaping the constitutional form of government in the United States.
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Thomas Jefferson, member of the Committee of Five
Thomas Jefferson was a member of the Committee of Five, a group of five members who drafted and presented what became the United States Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. Jefferson was a representative of Virginia and later became the third president of the United States.
The Committee of Five was appointed by Congress on June 11, 1776, and included John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The committee left no minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded. However, it is known that the committee discussed the general outline of the document and decided that Jefferson would write the first draft. Jefferson wrote the Declaration between June 11 and June 28, 1776, and it was a formal explanation of why the Continental Congress voted to declare American independence from Great Britain.
Jefferson's first draft included a scathing criticism of Great Britain's use of slavery, which was later removed to avoid offending slaveholders. The committee presented this copy to the Congress on June 28, 1776. The title of the document was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled". Congress then edited Jefferson's primary document, shortening it, removing unnecessary wording, and improving sentence structure. They also removed Jefferson's assertion that King George III had forced slavery onto the colonies, in order to appease those in South Carolina and Georgia, which had significant involvement in the slave trade.
After Congress's edits, the draft document was referred back to the Committee of Five to prepare a "fair copy", which was the final version prepared for delivery to the printer. The Committee of Five convened in the early evening of July 4 to complete this task. It is unclear whether the Declaration was authenticated by the Committee of Five's signature or the signature of President Hancock. However, upon the July 5 release of the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration, the Committee of Five's work was done.
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James Madison, recognised as the founding era's foremost proponent of liberties
James Madison is recognised as the Founding Era's foremost proponent of liberties. Madison played a central role in drafting, explaining, and ratifying the Constitution. He was a dominant force at the Constitutional Convention, advocating for constitutional principles of separation of powers, checks and balances, bicameralism, and federalism, which would limit the government and protect individual liberties.
Madison was the chief author of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, championing religious liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. He believed that the enumeration of specific rights would fix those rights in the public mind and encourage judges to protect them. Madison's commitment to individual liberties led him to oppose making the inclusion of a bill of rights a precondition for ratification of the Constitution. He doubted that mere "paper barriers" against violating basic rights were sufficient protection. However, a combination of electoral politics and a change in Madison's own thinking turned him into an active proponent of a federal bill of rights. In a 1788 campaign for a seat in the First Congress, he promised to support a bill of rights, and in June 1789, he introduced a series of proposed amendments that formed the core of what became the Bill of Rights.
Madison also sought greater consensus and harmony around constitutional principles by reaching out to opponents of the new government. He fought against calls for a second constitutional convention to limit the powers of the national government, believing this would lead to chaos. Instead, he wrote President George Washington's Inaugural Address, indicating support for a bill of rights to be acted upon in the First Congress. Madison's life's work as a statesman and political theorist was to secure the American revolutionary experiment by guarding against its own potential weaknesses and excesses.
In addition to his role as a framer of the Constitution, Madison is also recognised as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The Founding Fathers were political leaders who participated in the American Revolution, signing the Declaration of Independence, taking part in the Revolutionary War, and establishing the Constitution. They had strong educational backgrounds, with about half having attended or graduated from college. Madison himself had studied law and saw himself as a law student, not a lawyer. He was also immersed in the liberalism of the Enlightenment, and his theories advanced the rights and happiness of man. Madison's contributions to the founding of the United States were significant, and he is remembered as a champion of individual liberties and freedom.
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Alexander Hamilton, key author of the Federalist Papers
The Founding Fathers of the United States were political leaders who participated in the American Revolution. They signed the Declaration of Independence, took part in the Revolutionary War, and established the Constitution. The Framers of the Constitution were delegates to the Constitutional Convention and helped draft the Constitution of the United States.
Alexander Hamilton, a New York lawyer and statesman, was one of the Founding Fathers and a key author of the Federalist Papers. The Federalist Papers were written to urge New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution. They are a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius". The first 20 papers were written collaboratively, with 11 by Hamilton, five by Madison, and four by Jay. The rest of the series is dominated by three long segments by a single writer: Nos. 21–36 by Hamilton, Nos. 37–58 by Madison, and No. 65 through the end by Hamilton.
Hamilton decided to write the Federalist Papers in response to the "Anti-Federalist Papers", which criticised the proposed Constitution. In Federalist No. 1, Hamilton wrote that the series would "endeavor to give a satisfactory answer to all the objections which shall have made their appearance, that may seem to have any claim to your attention." The Federalist Papers were published anonymously, in various New York state newspapers of the time, including The New York Packet and The Independent Journal.
The Federalist Papers are notable for their opposition to what later became the United States Bill of Rights. They explain the nature of the republican form of government and lay out the ways in which the Articles of Confederation did not work. Hamilton, Jay, and Madison argued that the decentralisation of power under the Articles of Confederation prevented the new nation from becoming strong enough to compete on the world stage or quell internal insurrections.
After Hamilton's death in 1804, a list emerged claiming that he alone had written two-thirds of the Federalist essays. However, the exact authorship of each essay is not always clear, and some are believed to have been written by Madison.
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