50 Fun Facts About Founding Fathers

Who commanded the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later became the first US president?

He was also president of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, so he presided over the birth of the army, the constitution and the presidency.

Historian Richard B. Morris famously singled out how many 'key' Founding Fathers?

His list was Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Jefferson, Madison and Washington, chosen on 'triple tests' of leadership, longevity and statesmanship.

Which three men negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War?

Jay had been ambassador to Spain and Adams had just secured Dutch loans; Franklin was the senior diplomat in France throughout the war.

Which two Founding Fathers died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration?

Adams's last words acknowledged his longtime friend and rival, not knowing Jefferson had died a few hours earlier at Monticello.

The 55 delegates who attended the 1787 Constitutional Convention are commonly known by what term?

Only 39 of them actually signed; three who stayed to the end refused, and Rhode Island never sent anyone at all.

Which pamphleteer, author of Common Sense, is sometimes called the 'Father of the American Revolution'?

John Adams criticised him for ignoring the separation of powers, but Common Sense was crucial in building support for independence after January 1776.

Which 'Give me liberty or give me death!' orator skipped the Constitutional Convention as he 'smelt a rat'?

He went on to lead the Anti-Federalist fight against ratification in Virginia and served as the state's first post-colonial governor.

Who was the only person to sign the Continental Association, Declaration, Articles of Confederation and Constitution?

The Connecticut delegate began his working life as a shoemaker and later brokered the compromise that gave every state two senators.

Which delegate wrote the Constitution's preamble and is nicknamed the "Penman of the Constitution"?

He also changed the opening from 'We, the People of the States' to 'We, the People of the United States', and walked on a wooden leg after a 1780 carriage accident.

Who alone signed the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris and the Constitution?

He was 70 at the Declaration signing, the oldest signer, and by the Convention in 1787 he was 81.

Under what pen name did Franklin write his famous almanack from 1732?

He had earlier posed as a middle-aged widow named Silence Dogood to get letters printed in his brother's Boston newspaper.

Which of these was NOT one of Franklin's inventions?

Eli Whitney gets the cotton gin; Franklin also charted and named the Gulf Stream and founded Philadelphia's first fire department.

Roughly how many people attended Franklin's funeral in Philadelphia in 1790?

He was buried at Christ Church Burial Ground; a French statesman said he had 'snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants'.

Where was Alexander Hamilton born?

Born out of wedlock and orphaned as a child, he was taken in by a merchant and later given a scholarship to King's College, now Columbia.

How many of the 85 Federalist Papers did Alexander Hamilton write?

Madison wrote most of the rest and John Jay only five, falling ill after his first four essays.

Where did the fatal 1804 pistol duel that killed Hamilton take place?

Hamilton had blocked Burr's bid for the presidency in 1800 and then opposed his run for governor of New York, calling him unfit for office.

Which financial institution did Alexander Hamilton found in 1784, before he became Treasury Secretary?

His later First Bank of the United States was funded by a tariff on imports and the whiskey tax that provoked the Whiskey Rebellion.

Under what collective pseudonym were The Federalist Papers published?

The name honoured Publius Valerius, a founder of the Roman republic; the first 77 essays ran in New York newspapers between October 1787 and April 1788.

Which Federalist Paper by Madison argues a large republic is the best guard against 'majority faction'?

No. 51 is his case for checks and balances, and Hamilton's No. 78 lays the groundwork for judicial review.

Which Founding Father was the first chief justice of the United States and later governor of New York?

While still chief justice he negotiated the controversial 1794 Jay Treaty with Britain, and earlier he had talked Spain into financing the Revolution.

What was James Madison's proposal that became the basis of the Constitutional Convention's debates?

Governor Edmund Randolph presented it on May 29, 1787; William Paterson's rival New Jersey Plan defended equal representation for small states.

On what date did James Madison introduce the Bill of Rights in the first Congress?

He had studied more than 200 amendments proposed by state ratifying conventions; ten were finally ratified on December 15, 1791.

Where did James Madison study under John Witherspoon?

His closest friend there was future Attorney General William Bradford; he returned home to Montpelier in 1772 without a chosen career.

Who formally introduced James Madison to his future wife Dolley Payne Todd in 1794?

Dolley was a 26-year-old widow whose Quaker husband had died in a yellow fever epidemic; she later saved Gilbert Stuart's Washington portrait from the burning White House.

Which unpopular clients did lawyer John Adams successfully defend before the Revolution?

He defied anti-British sentiment to take the case, and later called it one of the best pieces of service he ever rendered his country.

Adams was the primary author of which 1780 document that influenced the later federal charter?

He also secured Dutch loans for the war effort and became the first US ambassador to Great Britain in 1785.

Which president was the first to live in the White House?

He spent much of his term at his Massachusetts home, Peacefield, preferring farm life to the business of the capital.

Abigail Adams is remembered for a March 1776 letter urging her husband and Congress to do what?

Their letters, filled with debates on government and politics, make her one of the best-documented figures of the founding era.

Where was Thomas Jefferson born in 1743?

He inherited land nearby and began building Monticello, his lifelong architectural project, in 1768.

Jefferson's self-written epitaph lists three achievements. Which of these is NOT one of them?

He left the presidency off entirely, along with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the country.

For how much did Jefferson sell his library to rebuild the Library of Congress in 1815?

His first library had already been lost in a fire at Shadwell in 1770, so this was his second collection.

Which instrument did Thomas Jefferson play, often accompanying his wife Martha at the piano?

He also played the cello; the couple's shared love of music was one of the foundations of their marriage.

Where did Washington take the oath of office at his first inauguration in 1789?

He had been elected unanimously by the Electoral College, a feat he repeated in 1792.

Contrary to legend, Washington's dentures were NOT made of wood. What were they made from?

He lost every tooth but one to decay and went through several sets during his presidency.

Which planned mutiny by unpaid Continental Army officers did Washington defuse in March 1783?

The same month he became the first president-general of the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary fraternity of Revolutionary officers.

Young Washington's first profession, licensed by the College of William & Mary, was what?

He was appointed surveyor of Culpeper County without serving the customary apprenticeship, thanks to the Fairfax family.

Whose large, stylish signature on the Declaration of Independence made his name a byword for a signature?

As President of the Continental Congress he signed first; customs officials had seized his sloop Liberty in 1768 and charged him with smuggling.

Who were the youngest and oldest signers of the Declaration of Independence?

Rutledge of South Carolina had initially opposed the Lee Resolution but moved to postpone the vote a day so the colonies could act unanimously.

Who physically wrote out (engrossed) the parchment Declaration that hangs in the National Archives?

Congress ordered the engrossed copy on July 19 and most delegates signed it on August 2, 1776, not July 4.

Which delegate rode through the night to break Delaware's tie and vote for independence?

John Adams wrote to Abigail the next day predicting that July 2, the day of the vote, would become the great American holiday.

Who was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, and its last surviving signer?

He died in 1832 at 95, having been called the wealthiest man in the colonies when the Revolution began, and served as Maryland's first US senator.

Which Virginian principally wrote the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights and later refused to sign the Constitution?

His declaration became a model for the US Bill of Rights, which is why he is sometimes called its father despite opposing ratification.

Which state skipped the Constitutional Convention and was the last to ratify, in May 1790?

It had already vetoed a 1782 amendment letting Congress tax imports, one of the failures that made the Articles look unworkable.

Who chaired the committee that drafted the Articles of Confederation, presented to Congress in July 1776?

The final draft was not completed until November 1777, and Maryland held out on ratifying until 1781 over western land claims.

Which Philadelphia physician and Declaration signer became the 'father of American psychiatry'?

Thomas Paine consulted him while writing Common Sense, and he founded Dickinson College.

Which chief justice established judicial review in Marbury v. Madison?

He served with Washington at Valley Forge and was the first to call him 'the Father of his country'.

The author of Common Sense died in 1809 shunned by many. How many mourners attended his funeral?

The author of the pamphlet that virtually every Patriot had read died shunned, partly for the attacks on organised religion in The Age of Reason.

Samuel Adams, founder of the Sons of Liberty, was what relation to President Adams?

Before politics he had failed as a businessman and tax collector, and worked in the family malthouse.

Which Committee of Five member later administered the presidential oath at the 1789 inauguration?

He was also New York's first chancellor and, with James Monroe, negotiated the Louisiana Purchase as minister to France.

Which future president introduced the phrase 'Founding Fathers' in a 1916 convention keynote speech?

He repeated it at his 1921 inauguration, becoming the first president to use the term, and later speakers adopted it.