The 26 Greatest Founding Fathers of the United States

Generals, lawyers, printers and pamphleteers, and still no agreement about which of them mattered most.

1. 1
   Benjamin Franklin

   Printer, scientist and diplomat, and the only Founder who signed the Declaration, the French alliance, the Treaty of Paris and the Constitution.
   1000pts
2. 2
   George Washington

   Commander of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States.
   952pts
3. 3
   John Rutledge

   South Carolina governor who chaired the Committee of Detail that produced the first full draft of the Constitution.
   822pts
4. 4
   Gouverneur Morris

   Delegate who wrote the final polished text of the Constitution, including its preamble.
   792pts
5. 5
   Rufus King

   Massachusetts delegate who signed the Constitution, pushed to bar slavery from the Northwest Territory and later served as minister to Britain.
   685pts
6. 6
   Thomas Jefferson

   Principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President.
   621pts
7. 7
   Thomas Paine

   Pamphleteer whose Common Sense turned colonial argument into a case for independence.
   621pts
8. 8
   John Jay

   Co-author of the Federalist Papers and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
   621pts
9. 9
   Robert Morris

   Financier of the Revolution who kept the Continental Army supplied and signed the Declaration, the Articles and the Constitution.
   621pts
10. 10
    John Hancock

    President of the Continental Congress and the first and largest signature on the Declaration.
    548pts
11. 11
    Elbridge Gerry

    Massachusetts signer of the Declaration and the Articles who later became Vice President and gave his name to gerrymandering.
    548pts
12. 12
    Alexander Hamilton

    First Treasury Secretary and the architect of the American financial system.
    548pts
13. 13
    John Dickinson

    Penman of the Revolution whose Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania rallied the colonies and who drafted the Articles of Confederation.
    548pts
14. 14
    Roger Sherman

    Connecticut delegate whose Great Compromise created the two-chamber Congress.
    464pts
15. 15
    John Marshall

    Revolutionary War officer and Virginia ratifier who, as Chief Justice for 34 years, established judicial review in Marbury v. Madison.
    464pts
16. 16
    Richard Henry Lee

    Virginian whose June 1776 resolution in the Continental Congress formally proposed independence from Britain.
    464pts
17. 17
    James Wilson

    Pennsylvania lawyer who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution, shaped the presidency at the Convention and sat on the first Supreme Court.
    464pts
18. 18
    Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

    South Carolina general and Constitution signer who refused French bribes in the XYZ Affair and twice ran for President.
    365pts
19. 19
    John Witherspoon

    Princeton president and the only active clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, and the teacher of James Madison.
    365pts
20. 20
    Benjamin Rush

    Philadelphia physician who signed the Declaration, urged Paine to write Common Sense and later reconciled Adams and Jefferson.
    365pts
21. 21
    Samuel Adams

    Boston agitator who organised resistance to British taxes and helped spark the Revolution.
    365pts
22. 22
    James Madison

    Chief drafter of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, later the fourth President.
    365pts
23. 23
    John Adams

    Advocate for independence in the Continental Congress and the second President.
    249pts
24. 24
    George Mason

    Virginian who wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the model for the Bill of Rights, then refused to sign the Constitution without one.
    249pts
25. 25
    Patrick Henry

    Virginia orator remembered for the 'give me liberty or give me death' speech.
    0pts
26. 26
    James Monroe

    Revolutionary officer, diplomat and the fifth President, author of the Monroe Doctrine.
    0pts

Comments 1