Founding Fathers. Founders. Fathers. Signers. Framers. Patriots. The list of terms to describe the individuals who ‘founded’ the United States of America can go on and on. (Harvard)
Warren G. Harding popularized ‘Founding Father’ a little over a century ago, in his keynote address at the 1916 Republican National Convention. Harding was a senator from Ohio at the time, and chairman of the convention, which nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes (who ultimately lost to Woodrow Wilson).
As reported by the Richmond Virginian on June 8, 1916, Harding said,
“No political party ever has builded or even can build permanently except in conscientious devotion to abiding principles. Time never alters a fundamental truth.”
“Conditions do change, popular interest is self-assertive, and ‘paramounting’ has its perils, as the Democratic party will bear witness, but the essentials of constructive government and attending progress are abiding and unchanging.”
“For example, we ought to be as genuinely American today as when the founding fathers flung their immortal defiance in the face of old-world oppressions and dedicated a new republic to liberty and justice.”
“We ought to be as prepared for defense as Washington urged amid the anxieties of our national beginning, and Grant confirmed amid the calm reflections of union restored.” This wasn’t the only time Harding used the term.
In 1859, George William Curtis, a popular lecturer and writer of his day, referred to the men who created the Declaration of Independence as ‘fathers,’ when he said,
“Our fathers did not say it, because they did not mean it. They were men who meant what they said, and who said what they meant, and meaning all men, they said all men. They were patriots asserting a principle and ready to die for it, not politicians pettifogging for the presidency”
A few years later (on November 19, 1863) on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania came perhaps the most famous use of the term ‘fathers,’
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
(“Four score and seven” equals eighty-seven, so President Abraham Lincoln (speaking in 1863, at the time of the American Civil War) was referring to 1776. Likewise, his reference to “all men are created equal” takes us to the Declaration of Independence that states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”)
Dictionaries don’t necessarily help in narrowing a list on who a Founding Father is:
Merriam-Webster
founding father (n): 1. an originator of an institution or movement; 2. often capitalized both Fs: a leading figure in the founding of the United States; specifically a member of the American Constitutional Convention of 1787
Oxford English Dictionary
founding (adj): Associated with or marking the establishment of (something specified); that originated or created. Spec. founding father (freq. with capital initials), an American statesman of the Revolutionary period, esp. a member of the American Constitutional Convention of 1787
Safire’s Political Dictionary (1968, 2008)
Founding Fathers: A group of revolutionaries who took their changes on treason to pursue the course of independency, who are today viewed reverently as sage signers of the documents of U.S. freedom.
Some say the term has been applied to the first English settlers in North America, to participants in the Continental Congresses and Constitutional Convention or the “founding generation” that led the United States from the Declaration of Independence onward.
To some, a Founding Father is, more specifically, a signer of the Declaration of Independence (there were 56 signers – who “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”)
In addition, some suggest the framers and/or signers of the US Constitution are the Founding Fathers.
The ‘Founders’ is Not a Gender-based Group
An obvious omission in finding the ‘Founding Fathers’ is that it suggests only men helped found this country. That, of course, is simply not true.
We are reminded of Abigail Adams, wife of the 2nd President of the US, John Adams, and mother of the 6th President of the US, John Quincy Adams. She reminds us of the saying, “Behind every great man is a great woman.”
As she says, “Remember the Ladies.” Abigail Adams signs her letter, “I am your ever faithfull friend”.
In addition, if one were to suggest Paul Revere is a ‘Founding Father’ because of his midnight ride to Lexington, Massachusetts, with the news that British soldiers stationed in Boston were about to march into the countryside northwest of the town, then we would also need to include Sybil Ludington as a ‘Founder;’ she, too, rode a midnight ride to warn Patriots of the coming of the British.
The Founders Were Not Perfect (Neither Are We)
None of the ‘Founders’ were perfect; and, neither are any of us.
For some of the Founders, their deeds were not consistent with their words. For example, many of the Founders were slave owners. While this is abhorrent, the Founders established a system of government that, after much struggle and the violence of the Civil War and the civil rights movement, did lead to legal freedom for all Americans and movement toward equality. (Smithsonian)
Nowadays it seems it is easy and often that others will blame everyone else for everything. And, one fault of character becomes the focus of the judgment of the whole person.
If we continue to judge people of the past by their respective actions or inactions based on the norms of our society today versus theirs, I am confident future generations will look upon all of us and laugh and wonder, ‘What were they thinking?’
Wouldn’t it be nice if, “I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along?” (Rodney King, May 1, 1992)
Broad Expression of the Founders
A challenge of making a list is that lists invariably leave someone out.
And, who makes the list of Founders depends on who you talk to, or what criteria you suggest you use in making your own list. And, unfortunately, views tend to change, as political or social views/issues of the present interfere with the context and commitment of nearly 250-years ago.
More broadly, it may be appropriate to suggest a Founder is anyone who helped bring on the American Revolution, win the war that secured independence, and helped establish the American Republic.
Click the following link to a general summary about the Founders:
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