Some say that the men who attended the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress were all Founding Fathers. This is believed by most people. Some historians limit the Founding Fathers to 55 people who participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Others further limit them to the 39 people who signed the famous embossed copy of the U.S. Constitution.
So there is no clear 100%definition of the Founding Fathers.
Role of Founding Fathers During the American Revolution
During the American Revolution which began in 1765, Founding Fathers led the Thirteen Colonies. After Britain imposed a lot of taxes and angered the colonies, they decided to unite together and launched protests against the taxes.
In 1774, the Founding Fathers who represented the Thirteen Colonies came together at the First Continental Congress. Famous figures at this Congress included George Washington, John Adams, Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry.
The Congress decided to appeal to the British crown to repeal the taxes and give colonies their rights. The Founding Fathers at this congress also decided that they would boycott Britain if their demands were not met.
By 1775, Britain had refused to heed to their demands and imposed further taxes. This led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War the same year. The Founding Fathers once again met in 1775 at the Second Continental Congress. This is where they took important steps towards American Independence.
Founding Fathers and American Independence
At the Second Continental Congress in 1775, the Founding Fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence. This declaration stated that the Thirteen Colonies were now free from British rule and considered themselves as independent. The declaration also said that all men are created equal and must have access to the rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Founding Fathers became the national government of the united Thirteen Colonies. At the time, the Revolutionary War was still going on. The Founding Fathers made important decisions such as developing a war strategy, appointing generals, raising armies and establishing ties with other nations such as France. Famous new figures at this Congress included Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and John Witherspoon. All of them were later regarded as among the Founding Fathers.
Role of Founding Fathers After the American Revolution
By 1783, the American armies under the supreme command of George Washington had defeated Britain. The Revolutionary War culminated in the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783. The treaty was negotiated by three notable Founding Fathers including Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams. Britain accepted American independence in this treaty. Once the Thirteen Colonies were free from British rule, the Founding Fathers played a very important role in creating the constitution and determining the political direction of the country.
Founding Fathers and American Constitution
In 1777, the Second Continental Congress approved Articles of Confederation. This was the first constitution of the American colonies, drafted by the Founding Fathers. All the 13 states ratified the articles by 1781 and it became the constitution of the union of the 13 independent states. Later when the Revolutionary War was over, the Founding Fathers realized that a new and more detailed constitution was needed. So the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787. At this Convention, the Founding Fathers discussed important matters such as the status of slavery in the newly born USA, the representation of the states at the Congress, and the extent to which the federal government should have power over the states. They debated and discussed these issues. Once agreements were reached, they were made a part of the constitution. This came to define the nature and structure of the USA government.
Famous Founding Fathers
A large number of Founding Fathers were members of the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress. Of these, some of the most famous were George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Roger Sherman.
Here are brief biographies of each.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.”
Thomas Paine
was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and Famous writer
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Robert R. Livingston ‘Chancellor of New York’ was a member of the ‘The Committee of Five’ who wrote the famous Declaration of Independence in 1776…
Read more about the Robert R. Livingston >>
Roger Sherman was one of the ‘Famous Five’ Founding Fathers of America, Roger Sherman helped finalize the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Read more about the Roger Sherman >>
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.
https://american-history.net/founding-fathers/
An Orwellian society, as describe by George Orwell, is the destruction of the welfare of a free society. In which there is an invasion of privacy by constantly monitoring its citizens. Moreover, it is the encouragement of “doublespeak” which refers to misleading the masses to accept inconsistent policies. A great example of this is seen when the American people gave up their civil liberties and freedom in the name of national security. On December 31, 2011, while many Americans celebrated bringing in the New Year, President Obama was busy signing into law the $662 billion funded National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which focuses on the defense of the United States and its overseas interests.
Although the NDAA addresses US national security programs and the Department of Defense health care costs, it becomes controversial when addressing counter-terrorism. Title X, Subtitle D, Section 1021 of the NDAA, which is labeled counter-terrorism, authorizes the military to detain US citizens indefinitely without trial if the government suspects their involvement with terrorism or connection to a terrorist organization. To date, there has been no law in the legislative history of the United States other than the Patriot Act which has given the President such unlimited power.
As a result of this provision the act has been seen as both a violation of international law and the laws of war. In defense of the Act, the President has assured that his Administration will not engage in any sort of unjust citizen detention. At the signing of NDAA the President stated,
“I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.” He further went on to state, “My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.” However, such statements do not prevent future Heads of State from acting in a different manner, and may result in America in fact being one step closer to becoming an Orwellian society, whereby a totalitarian government will dominate and oppress our civil liberties by fighting an endless war on terror.
The NDAA also gives the military the power to exercise firm and repressive control over the population, which in turn gives the military the power to operate outside the boundaries of our Constitution by constantly monitoring citizens’ activities to seek out persons of suspicion. Similarly, during the Bush Administration’s war on terror, the issue of detaining suspected terrorist for an indefinite period of time was brought before the US Supreme Court. The Court held that no government has the power or the legal premise to hold a person for an indefinite period of time. It becomes apparent that the signing of the NDAA goes against the very philosophy of our Founding Fathers who purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure that no one governmental branch supersedes the other.
With the NDAA authorizing the President and military to exercise an unprecedented amount of power unopposed, that system is rendered ineffective. Realizing that such legislation is unjust, the Virginia Senate has taken the opportunity to stand up against the unreasonable application of government authority by passing a bill that prevents state agency from participating or assisting in the detention of US citizens.
Ultimately, although the NDAA was designed with national security in mind, it may be a grave mistake to allow the executive branch of the government to have such an unprecedented amount of power and authority. If such legislation remains, one can only imagine the abuse of power of future leaders who would allow America to closely mimic countries that use policies and mass surveillance to control their citizens. Thus, if this Act is left unchallenged we can only expect the slow destruction of our welfare, and the systematic eradication of our
basic freedom and civil liberties, inevitably.