Founding Fathers

The statesmen, soldiers, and thinkers who declared independence from Britain and drafted the Constitution that followed.

Alexander Hamilton

Founding Father, first Secretary of the Treasury, and architect of American capitalism

Benjamin Franklin

Printer, diplomat, and scientist who helped engineer American independence

George Mason

Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the conscience of the Constitutional Convention

John Hancock

President of the Continental Congress and the bold first signer of the Declaration

John Jay

First Chief Justice of the United States and co-author of The Federalist Papers

John Marshall

Chief Justice who forged the Supreme Court into a coequal branch of government

Nathan Hale

Continental Army Spy and American Martyr, 1776

Patrick Henry

The orator whose words gave the American Revolution its voice

Paul Revere

Boston silversmith and the most famous midnight rider of the American Revolution

Richard Henry Lee

The Virginian who moved the resolution for independence in 1776

Robert R. Livingston

The Committee of Five member who helped draft the Declaration — and later bought Louisiana

Roger Sherman

The only person to sign all four of the great founding documents

Samuel Adams

Founding Father, master agitator, and the man who made revolution seem inevitable

Thomas Paine

The radical pamphleteer who talked a continent into revolution