FOUNDING FATHERS
The Founding Fathers of the United States, or simply the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of American leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, led the war for independence from Great Britain, and built a frame of government for the new United States of America upon republican principles during the latter decades of the 18th century. Historian Richard B. Morris in 1973 identified the following seven figures as key Founding Fathers: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington based on the critical and substantive roles they played in the formation of the country’s new government. All held 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 phrase Founding Fathers is a 20th-century appellation, coined by future President Warren G. Harding in 1916.(More from Wikipedia)
Alexander Hamilton was one of the Founding Fathers of our nation and was also the founder of the country’s first political party in the modern sense, the Federalist Party. In honor of his being the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of President George Washington, his portrait has graced the front of the $10 bill since 1929. Before Hamilton became such a hit, that was about to change in the recent drive to put a woman on some of our folding money – word now is that President Andrew Jackson will soon be removed from the $20 bill.
(September 2016)
