Underappreciated Founding Fathers

Americans usually understand at least some of the most significant contributions to American independence and its ideals of equality, liberty and representative republican government of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall. They might know only a little or at least have only heard of Patrick Henry, George Mason and John Jay, but Americans hardly know some of the most significant Founding Fathers who ought to be better known and appreciated, not only for their patriotism during the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War, but for their significant lasting contributions to the American Revolution and its ideals, and to the republican federal Union of States. I have listed in this post the most underappreciated Founders and their most significant and enduring contributions to America. Patrick Henry of Virginia: Famous for his speech against George II in the Virginia assembly, he was also the leader of the anti-Federalists, whose concerns about the proposed Constitution led to the adoption of the Bill of Rights George Mason of Virginia: He was another key anti-Federalist and author of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights and its state Constitution, both of which became the basis for Madison's federal Bill of Rights, which became the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. John Jay of New York: Together with Madison and Hamilton, he was the author of Federalist Papers that explained the proposed Constitution and responded to objections against it, which greatly influenced the ratification of the federal charter. Jay contributed diplomatically to the independence of the federal union with the treaty named for him that removed British troops from American soil and settled other matters. He helped establish important judicial precedents as the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: His resolution declaring the Thirteen original British Colonies Independent sovereign States was approved by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776, thereby establishing American independence, based, as the Declaration of Independence explained two days later, on equality, liberty, and consent of the governed through their representatives, and their right to take up arms to defend their freedom. Charles Carroll of Maryland: The only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, his principled arguments not only against British tyranny, but for religious liberty against the established church that repressed freedom, even in Maryland. His proposal for Maryland's State Constitution of an electoral college, based on the College of Cardinals that elects the Bishop of Rome, for the election of the State Senate, became the inspiration at the federal Constitutional Convention for the Electoral College that elects the President and Vice President. Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania: As President of the Second Continental Congress in 1784, he persuaded enough of the members who had returned home after the Revolutionary War had ended, to return to Philadelphia to ratify the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the peace treaty he signed as the presiding officer of the assembly that legally ended the war, in which the British recognized American Independence and the sovereignty of the American States over the territory that extended to the Mississippi River. Edmund Randolph of Virginia: At the Constitutional Convention that was intended to strengthen the Articles of Confederation that had weakly united the States, he proposed an entirely new plan of union, which, together with other proposals, led the Delegates to consider only the formation of the Union of States under a new Constitution, instead of modifying the Articles of Confederation. Although he first opposed the Constitution, the proposed Bill of Rights encouarged him to support the document, which was a key development in its ratification. James Wilson of Pennsylvania: He had argued against British Parliamentary authority over the unrepresented Colonies. As a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, advocated successfully for the power of the people through a popularly elected legislature and against an executive appointed by Congress, as well as for each State to ratify the Constitution by an elected convention of delegates; Wilson also insisted on a single chief executive, proposed the Electoral College to give the power to the people (through their State Legislatures or by electing Electors) to choose the President, and the three-fifths rule that drastically reduced the representation of slave States in the House of Representatives; his draft of the Constitution became the basis of the final draft. He persuaded his state convention to ratify the document in a speech that was more influential in America than the Federalist Papers. Roger Sherman of Connecticut: His compromise at the Constitutional Convention between Randolph’s Virginia Plan of Union and the New Jersey Plan of Union balanced the interests of large and small States by establishing a lower chamber of the federal Legislature based on population and an upper chamber based on the equal representation of States. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina: He contributed numerous provisions to the Constitution as a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Gouverneur Morris of New York and Pennsylvania: The Constitutional Convention Delegate who spoke the most often, he chaired the Committee on Style at the Constitutional Convention that finalized its draft and authored its Preamble. “The Penman of the Constitution” gave an impassioned speech at the Convention answering Randolph’s ojbections. There are other Founding Fathers who also made significant contributions to America in the Revolutionary period and the early Federal period. These men and those I have listed also influenced their States greatly during that critical period. Americans would benefit from better knowledge and appreciation of the Founding Fathers, at least of the above-listed figures, and of the Patriots and Founding generation overall. May the Founders continue to inspire Americans to cherish and defend their independence and liberty.