Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Founding Fathers of the USA: lists, history and interesting facts. How do Americans feel about these events?

In his blog, the legendary presenter of the BBC Russian Service Seva Novgorodtsev looks at the news of the day sometimes from the most unexpected angle.

Audio version of the heading "Caution, people!" listen also in the program "BibiSeva", which goes on air on the website bbcrussian.com daily on weekdays at 19:00 Moscow time (16:00 London time). The podcast of the program can be downloaded.

History belongs to us, and especially to those of us who study history and, more importantly, to those who write it. With each new generation of historians, the most socially conscious and politically correct come forward, looking at the old in a new way.

On the eve of the presidential debate in America, it is noticeable that the founding fathers of the United States, who gave the descendants of the constitution and the Bill of Rights, do not enjoy their former respect among modern historians, they are losing points.

They write that many of the founders were white, from the privileged class, had slaves and were not averse to profiting from the lands taken from the indigenous population - the Indians. If they were so progressive, why didn't they say a word about equal rights for women? In those historical documents, there is only one female name - Betsy Ross, and even then because she was instructed to sew the flag.

American radio journalist Tom Hartmann wrote the book What Would Jefferson Do? It turns out that the richest among the American revolutionaries was John Hancock, whose fortune in modern money is 750 thousand dollars. That is, not an oligarch. Another signer of the Declaration, Thomas Nelson, was confiscated by the British all the land, he died at the age of fifty, in poverty.

Today it is taken for granted that the overthrow of the British colonial yoke was the right thing to do. However, at that time, most of the colonists did not think so, stating that it was better for America to remain an English colony until the end of the century.

The 56 people who signed the Declaration of Independence knew they were signing their own death warrant. Under existing English law, they were traitors to the King and the Empire. The punishment for betrayal is death. Benjamin Franklin then said to his colleagues: "If we do not stick together, we will be hanged one by one."

John Hancock was the first to sign the declaration. His signature is the largest. "I want King George III to see it without glasses," he explained. Hancock then had to flee from the advancing English army, his wife was pregnant, and later gave birth to a dead baby.

Of those 56 signatories, nine died in the war of independence, 17 people lost their homes and their entire fortune. None of the descendants of those 56 families are today part of the political or business elite.

The oldest of them, Benjamin Franklin, was 76 years old, Jefferson - 33 years old, almost all were relatively young people. They stood face to face with the world's largest power, the British Empire. King George III had a powerful army under arms, and colossal financial power was in his hands. He was the owner of the largest multinational corporation of the time - the East India Company.

It was against her that the first action, the famous "Boston Tea Party", was directed.

On December 16, 1773, a group of "sons of liberty" in national costumes of Indians with axes and clubs boarded the tea clippers Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver. A team of professional longshoremen quickly emptied the holds and threw overboard bales of tea, 45 tons in all, worth about two million dollars at today's exchange rate.

Vandalism and robbery. Or a brave act of freedom fighters.

Your comments

Who were the founding fathers of America?

Well, that's understandable! - Scoundrels and Carbonari!

Sherman was a shoemaker, our Yasha Sverdlov was an engraver

Franklin - made soap and candles, and our Leiba Bronstein-Trotsky - also didn’t work a damn thing from the age of 17 ...

Adams - refused the priesthood EXACTLY, like our unforgettable Koba!

Jafferson is a lawyer, like Lenin

In the USA there is such a sketch speech - rather stupid and moderately obtuse - in the spirit of the English! - The ship with 300 lawyers sank. Audience reaction: Good start...

We don’t understand what the trick is if you don’t know the age-old hatred of people for lawyers in the United States.

A lawyer, a shoemaker, a soap maker and a pop-haired man stirred up meanness - a revolution ... Everything is logical and understandable ...

ONE is not clear! - Why spoil tea and burn cars, as is now customary in France !?

albor.ru,

From the point of view of the heirs of King George, vandalism and robbery. From the point of view of the sons of freedom, a brave act of fighters

(not thrown into their carts, mind you).

Who are you for, anyway?

Jerry

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Etymology

The large group of "Founding Fathers" is divided into two key subgroups: the delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and the framers of the US Constitution in 1787 (additionally including the delegates who signed the Articles of Confederation. Until the end of the 19th century they were referred to as the "Founders USA" or as "Fathers of the USA".

Some historians use the term "Founding Fathers" to refer to a larger group of individuals, including not only the signers of the founding documents, but also people who participated in the formation of the United States of America as politicians, lawyers, statesmen, soldiers, diplomats, or just ordinary citizens.

Historian Richard Morris identified the following seven key Founding Fathers in 1973: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Three of them (Hamilton, Madison, and Jay) are the authors of the Federalist Papers, 85 articles in support of the ratification of the US Constitution.

Most Important Founding Fathers

№	Name	Characteristic
1	Adams, John John Adams	Second President of the United States
2	Washington, George George Washington	First President and Commander-in-Chief of American Forces during the Revolutionary War
3	Hamilton Alexander Hamilton	Leader of the Federalist Party and prominent constitutional lawyer and philosopher
4	Jay John Jay	1st Chief Justice of the United States, diplomat
5	Jefferson, Thomas Thomas Jefferson	Author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States
6	Madison, James James Madison	4th President of the United States, drafter of the US Constitution
7	Franklin Benjamin Franklin	Scientist and politician, one of the ideologists of the American Revolution

Lists of other founding fathers

List of signers of the Continental Association (1774)

President of the Continental Congress: Peyton Randolph.

Nathaniel Folsom and John Sullivan.

John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing and Robert Payne.

Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward.

Force Dean, Eliphalet Dyer and Roger Sherman.

John Alsop, Simon Boerum, James Duane, William Floyd, John Jay, Philip Livingston, Isaac Low and Henry Wiesner.

Stephen Crane, John De Hart, James Kinsey, William Livingston and Richard Smith

Edward Biddle, John Dickinson, Joseph Galloway, Charles Humphries, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton and George Ross.

Thomas McKean, George Postatt and Caesar Rodney.

Samuel Chase, Thomas Johnson Jr., William Paka and Matthew Tilman.

Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry Jr., Richard Henry Lee, Edmund Pendleton and George Washington.

Richard Caswell. Joseph Hughes and William Hooper.

Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, Henry Middleton, Edward Routledge and John Routledge.

Parties to the Constitutional Convention (1787)

Signers of the Constitution

Abraham Baldwin

Richard Bassett

Shotcrete Bedford, Jr.

John Blair

William Blount

David Brearly

Jacob Broome

Piers Butler

Daniel Carroll

George Clymer

Jonathan Dayton

John Dickinson

William Malo

Thomas Fitzsimons

Benjamin Franklin

Nicholas Gilman

Nathaniel Gorham

Alexander Hamilton

Jared Ingersoll

William Jackson, secretary (certifying)

Daniel Thomas Jennifer

William Samuel Johnson

Rufus King

John Langdon

William Livingston

James Madison

James McHenry

Thomas Mifflin

Gouverneur Morris

Robert Morris

William Paterson

Charles Pinckney

John Routledge

Roger Sherman

Richard Dobbs Spaight

George Washington (President of the Convention)

Hugh Williamson

James Wilson

Delegates who left the Convention without signing

William Richardson Davy

Oliver Ellsworth

William Houston

William Houstoun

John Lansing, Jr.

Alexander Martin

Luther Martin

James McClurg

John Francis Mercer

William Pierce

Caleb Strong

George Wythe

Robert Yates

Congress delegates who refused to sign

Elbridge Jerry

George Mason

Edmund Randolph

Other founders

The following persons are also mentioned in reliable sources as having the right to be called the Founding Fathers of the United States:

Abigail Smith Adams (wife and mother of US Presidents).
Ethan Allen (military and politician in Vermont).
Richard Allen (African-American Bishop).
John Bertram (botanist, horticulturist and explorer).
Egbert Benson (New York politician).
Richard Bland (Delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia).
Elias Boudinot (Delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey).
Aaron Burr (Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson).
George Rogers Clark (General of the Army).
George Clinton (Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States).
Lin Cox (Economist in the Continental Congress).
Albert Gallatin (politician and finance minister).
Horatio Gates (general of the army).
Nathaniel Green (general of the army).
Nathan Hale (performed the capture of an American soldier in 1776).
James Iredell (Defender of the Constitution, Judge).
John Paul Jones (Navy Captain)
Henry Knox (General of the Army, first US Secretary of War).
Tadeusz Kosciuszko (Polish army general).
Gilbert Lafayette (general of the French army).
Henry Lee III (Officer and Governor of Virginia).
Robert Livingston (first U.S. Foreign Secretary).
William Maclay (Pennsylvania, politician and US Senator).
Dolly Madison (wife of James Madison).
John Marshall (4th Chief Justice of the United States).
Philip Mazai (Italian doctor, merchant).
James Monroe (5th President of the United States).
Daniel Morgan (war hero and member of the House of Representatives from Virginia).
James Otis Jr. (lawyer, politician and journalist).
Thomas Paine ("godfather of the United States").
Andrew Pickens (General of the Army and Congressman).
Timothy Pickering (US Secretary of State).
Israel Putnam (general of the army).
Comte de Rochambeau (French general of the army).
Thomas Sumter (South Carolina military hero and congressman).
Gaym Solomon (financier and spy for the Continental Army).
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (American general of Prussian origin).
John Borlaz Warren (British admiral and diplomat).
Anthony Wayne (Army general and politician).
Noah Webster (writer, encyclopedist and educator).
Thomas Want (banker).
Payne Wingate (oldest survivor, Continental Congress).

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Literature

R. B. Bernstein - Oxford University Press, NY, (2008)

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An excerpt characterizing the Founding Fathers of the United States

And with the easy and naive frankness of a Frenchman, the captain told Pierre the story of his ancestors, his childhood, adolescence and manhood, all his related property, family relations. “Ma pauvre mere [“My poor mother.”] played, of course, an important role in this story.
- Mais tout ca ce n "est que la mise en scene de la vie, le fond c" est l "amour? L" amour! N "est ce pas, monsieur; Pierre?" he said, brightening up. "Encore un verre. [But all this is only an introduction to life, its essence is love. Love! Isn't that right, Monsieur Pierre? Another glass. ]
Pierre drank again and poured himself a third.
- Oh! Les femmes, les femmes! [ABOUT! women, women!] - and the captain, looking at Pierre with greasy eyes, began to talk about love and his love affairs. There were a lot of them, which was easy to believe, looking at the self-satisfied, beautiful face of the officer and at the enthusiastic animation with which he spoke about women. Despite the fact that all the love stories of Rambal had that nasty character in which the French see the exceptional charm and poetry of love, the captain told his stories with such sincere conviction that he alone experienced and knew all the charms of love, and described women so temptingly that Pierre listened with curiosity.
It was obvious that l "amour, which the Frenchman loved so much, was neither the lower and simple kind of love that Pierre once felt for his wife, nor the romantic love he himself inflated that he felt for Natasha (both kinds of this love Rambal equally despised - one was l "amour des charretiers, the other l" amour des nigauds) [the love of cabbies, the other is the love of fools.]; l "amour, which the French worshiped, consisted mainly in the unnaturalness of relations with a woman and in a combination of ugliness that gave the main charm to the feeling.
So the captain told the touching story of his love for a charming thirty-five-year-old marquise and at the same time for a lovely innocent seventeen-year-old child, the daughter of a charming marquise. The struggle of generosity between mother and daughter, which ended in the mother, sacrificing herself, offering her daughter as a wife to her lover, even now, although a long-gone memory, worried the captain. Then he told one episode in which the husband played the role of a lover, and he (the lover) the role of a husband, and several comic episodes from souvenirs d "Allemagne, where asile means Unterkunft, where les maris mangent de la choux croute and where les jeunes filles sont trop blondes [memories of Germany, where husbands eat cabbage soup and where young girls are too blonde.]
Finally, the last episode in Poland, still fresh in the captain’s memory, which he told with quick gestures and a flushed face, consisted in the fact that he saved the life of one Pole (in general, in the stories of the captain, the episode of saving life occurred incessantly) and this Pole entrusted him with his charming wife (Parisienne de c?ur [a Parisian at heart]), while he himself entered the French service. The captain was happy, the charming polka wanted to run away with him; but, moved by generosity, the captain returned his wife to her husband, while saying to him: “Je vous ai sauve la vie et je sauve votre honneur!” [I saved your life and save your honor!] Having repeated these words, the captain rubbed his eyes and shook himself, as if driving away the weakness that seized him at this touching memory.
Listening to the captain's stories, as often happens in the late evening and under the influence of wine, Pierre followed everything that the captain said, understood everything, and at the same time followed a number of personal memories that suddenly for some reason appeared to his imagination. When he listened to these stories of love, his own love for Natasha unexpectedly suddenly came to his mind, and, turning over in his imagination the pictures of this love, he mentally compared them with the stories of Rambal. Following the story of the struggle of duty with love, Pierre saw in front of him all the smallest details of his last meeting with the object of his love at the Sukharev Tower. Then this meeting had no effect on him; he never even mentioned her. But now it seemed to him that this meeting had something very significant and poetic.
“Pyotr Kirilych, come here, I have found out,” he now heard these words spoken, saw before him her eyes, her smile, her traveling cap, a strand of hair that had fallen out ... and something touching, touching seemed to him in all this.
Having finished his story about the charming polka, the captain turned to Pierre with a question whether he experienced a similar feeling of self-sacrifice for love and envy for his lawful husband.
Provoked by this question, Pierre raised his head and felt the need to express the thoughts that occupied him; he began to explain how he understands love for a woman somewhat differently. He said that he had loved and loved only one woman in his whole life and that this woman could never belong to him.
– Tiens! [Look at you!] – said the captain.
Then Pierre explained that he had loved this woman from a very young age; but he did not dare to think of her, because she was too young, and he was an illegitimate son without a name. Then, when he received a name and wealth, he did not dare to think about her, because he loved her too much, placed her too high above the whole world and therefore, even more so, above himself. Having reached this point in his story, Pierre turned to the captain with the question: does he understand this?
The captain made a gesture expressing that if he did not understand, then he still asked to continue.
- L "amour platonique, les nuages ... [Platonic love, clouds ...] - he muttered. Whether the wine drunk, or the need for frankness, or the thought that this person does not know and does not recognize any of the characters in his story, or all together unleashed tongue to Pierre. And with a mumbling mouth and oily eyes, looking somewhere into the distance, he told his whole story: both his marriage, and the story of Natasha's love for his best friend, and her betrayal, and all his simple relations with her. he also told what he was hiding at first - his position in the world and even revealed his name to him.
What struck the captain most of all from Pierre's story was that Pierre was very rich, that he had two palaces in Moscow, and that he abandoned everything and did not leave Moscow, but remained in the city, hiding his name and rank.
It was late at night when they went outside together. The night was warm and bright. To the left of the house was the glow of the first fire that had begun in Moscow, on Petrovka. To the right stood high the young sickle of the moon, and on the opposite side of the moon hung that bright comet, which was associated in Pierre's soul with his love. Gerasim, the cook, and two Frenchmen were standing at the gate. Their laughter and conversation in a language incomprehensible to each other were heard. They looked at the glow that could be seen in the city.
There was nothing wrong with a small, distant fire in a huge city.
Looking at the high starry sky, at the moon, at the comet and at the glow, Pierre felt joyful tenderness. “Well, that's how good it is. Well, what else do you need?!” he thought. And suddenly, when he remembered his intention, his head began to spin, he became ill, so that he leaned against the fence so as not to fall.
Without saying goodbye to his new friend, Pierre walked away from the gate with unsteady steps and, returning to his room, lay down on the sofa and immediately fell asleep.

At the glow of the first fire that broke out on September 2, from different roads, with different feelings, the fleeing and leaving residents and the retreating troops looked.
That night the Rostov train stopped at Mytishchi, twenty versts from Moscow. On September 1, they left so late, the road was so cluttered with wagons and troops, so many things were forgotten, for which people were sent, that that night it was decided to spend the night five miles beyond Moscow. The next morning we set off late, and again there were so many stops that we only reached Bolshiye Mytishchi. At ten o'clock, the Rostovs and the wounded who were traveling with them all settled in the yards and huts of a large village. The people, the coachmen of the Rostovs and the batmen of the wounded, having removed the gentlemen, had supper, fed the horses, and went out onto the porch.
In a neighboring hut, Raevsky's wounded adjutant lay, with a broken hand, and the terrible pain that he felt made him moan plaintively, without ceasing, and these moans sounded terribly in the autumn darkness of the night. On the first night, this adjutant spent the night in the same courtyard where the Rostovs stood. The countess said that she could not close her eyes from this groan, and in Mytishchi she moved to the worst hut only in order to be away from this wounded man.

Modern America has its own non-canonized saints. These are the so-called Founding Fathers - those people who played a key role in the founding and formation of American statehood, gaining independence and creating the principles of a new political system. They founded the modern USA. The largest American cities are named after them, their portraits are depicted on banknotes, they are still spoken of with reverence, and American high-ranking figures are so fond of quoting their phrases. Who created America as we know it today?

Washington

First on the list is George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, winner of the Revolutionary War, the man who created the institution of the American presidency and himself became the first president of the United States. Americans call him Father of the Fatherland. The ideal of a politician and a man of impeccable reputation. Father of American Democracy.

However, he was a very controversial person.

George was born into a family of small landowners in Virginia, a classic American colony where slavery flourished and Indians with blacks were not recognized as people. He grew up in a family of a slave owner and, of course, had a slave mindset. At 24, Washington married a wealthy middle-aged widow, receiving 17,000 acres of land, 300 slaves, and a mansion in Williamsburg as a dowry.

Soon, George significantly increased the income of his estate and became one of the richest landowners in Virginia. It is easy to guess that the father of American democracy managed to achieve this thanks to slave labor. By the time Washington was elected president, he was one of the wealthiest men in the country. By the way, he is generally one of the richest US presidents in history. Washington's fortune (plantations, real estate, and so on) today can be valued at $900 million.

Entrepreneurial Washington also successfully moved up the career (military and political) ladder: as a colonel, he actively participated in hostilities against the French, British, and Indians who claimed their lands.

Washington, along with like-minded people Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, also created the first liberal political technologies. For example, he organized an association in Virginia to boycott English goods. American leaders are actively using similar methods to this day; in particular what today is called sanctions.

In June 1775, Washington was unanimously elected commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. It was this army that coped with the task of total subjugation of the Indians, their forced assimilation or forced resettlement in the reservation. Only between 1775 and 1890, according to the estimates of the US Census Bureau, there were more than 40 wars, and these were wars mainly with civilians.

After Washington, there were 58 volumes of letters left, and that's not counting public speeches. On paper, the first US president advocated "just treatment of the native population", relied on its "ability to assimilate" and even personally talked with the leaders of the Indian tribes. But as soon as the tribe started talking about “their own identity or territories,” the peace-loving Washington gave orders: “Destroy!”, “Eradicate!”

As a smart politician, George understood that his soldiers, among whom, as a rule, were settlers-colonists, would not fight for the idea. They need new lands and money - that's what American patriotism was originally built on. Therefore, Washington and Congress, in the event of a victory, for example, over Britain, promised each soldier 50 acres of land.

The war with England for independence sometimes had a strange character. “Often the soldiers of the army of Washington did not even fight for the land, their commander-in-chief simply sent detachments to “stake out” land for his private company. For example, the soldiers went, built a house on the ground and “staken out” the ground,” says Dmitry Mikheev, a former senior researcher at the Hudson Institute for Strategic Studies in the United States. “The new Americans are nouveau riche: greedy, unprincipled, dishonest. They did not consider the Indians as people. And Washington commanded this parade of the nouveau riche. He burned dozens of villages. Cleared the territory. He exterminated the Indians without bothering. Allegedly acting in the interests of European settlers,” Mikheev continues.

Further, the scientist reveals another secret of Washington, which is not written in American history textbooks: “When Washington had already become president, when the Constitution had already been adopted (freedom, democracy, the human right to personal happiness), the settlers who fought in his army (the Irish , Scots), got no land! He didn't keep his promise!

It is easy to guess who, after the war, the occupied territories began to belong to - 500 thousand acres of land passed into the personal possession of George Washington himself. Theoretically, he was supposed to fulfill his promise and resettle 10,000 migrants there for free, but he preferred to resell the land to them at 30 times the market value.

To Washington's credit, he freed all his slaves because he despised slavery. But this does not mean contempt for money. Money and power is a completely different matter.

Modern historians are increasingly writing about the "uncontrolled power of Washington." And here again we should recall the policy of double standards. On the one hand, Washington and his associates preached equality, democracy, and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. On the other hand, in fact, this person created a central government that suppressed riots, destroyed those who disagreed, and conquered the continent.

The merit of Washington is the foundation of the capital of the United States, the city named after him. It is worth saying that, like most leaders of the United States, George was a Freemason, a member of the Alexandria Lodge No. 22. Therefore, the design of the city was carried out according to the Masonic type: so that the streets, wide diagonal avenues, squares and avenues remained open to viewing monumental structures of Masonic significance, the creation of which was supervised by Washington's close friend and adviser, a member of the Order of the Knights of the Temple, the architect Pierre Charles Lenfante. Thanks to its special architecture and symbolism, today Washington is called the most Masonic city on earth.

The first President of the United States was imbued with Masonic ideas. His funeral in 1799 was held according to a strict rite: the coffin was covered with a Masonic apron, each of the Masons present threw an acacia branch into the grave, symbolizing rebirth.

By the way, there have been 13 Masons-Presidents in the history of the United States, starting from Washington and ending with Truman, whose huge photo portrait in a Masonic apron and with a trowel in his hand now hangs on the wall of the fourth floor of the White House. Harry Truman is captured at the very moment when he made the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Jefferson

Another founding father of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, the third American president, the author of the most important document in US history - the Declaration of Independence, is depicted on two American banknotes at once: a two-dollar banknote and a five-cent coin.

This person is also interesting and extremely controversial in all respects. A talented philosopher, a liberal, a humanist and a cold-blooded slave owner, a prudent businessman, and a staunch freemason miraculously coexisted in him like no other.

Studying his thoughts and activities, one can come to the conclusion that he considered equality, freedom and fraternity to be the prerogative of people only of the “first category”. And all the rest are nothing more than upright animals. For example, here is a quote about blacks from his book Notes on the State of Virginia: “Their life consists more of sensations than of reflections. This also includes their desire to sleep when they are not working or having fun. An animal whose body is at rest and which does not think must, of course, be sleepy. Regarding memory, mind and imagination, it seems to me that in memory they are equal to whites, in the mind they are significantly inferior. I think you can hardly find a black person who can understand the works of Euclid. Their imagination is dull, tasteless and abnormal... They excrete less through the kidneys and more through the skin, which gives them a very strong and unpleasant smell. Because of this excessive sweating, they are better adapted to heat and worse to cold than whites.

But, despite such views, early in his political career, Jefferson liked to talk about the abolition of slavery and even inserted a clause on its abolition in the Declaration. But soon removed. As his contemporary writer and priest Moncourt Convé wrote about the father of American independence, "Never before has a man achieved such fame for something he did not do."

A hereditary slave owner, the third president of the United States, a fighter for democracy and equality, Thomas Jefferson owned 600 slaves during his lifetime, not counting servants, and plantations comparable in size to a city. In the American school history textbook, in the section "Thomas Jefferson: A Fighter for Freedom and Human Rights," it says: "In his industrial hive there were no disagreements and insults: there were not the slightest traces of discontent... Women sang at work, and grown-up children made nails at their leisure, without processing and for the sake of pleasure.”

And now let's take a look at the "Farm Book" written by Jefferson himself: learn a trade."

And now quotes from eyewitness records: “Locked up in a stuffy, smoky workshop, the boys minted 5-10 thousand nails a day, which in 1796 brought Jefferson $ 2 thousand in total income. Back then, his nail factory competed with the state penitentiary.”
The politician's son-in-law, Randolph, reported to Jefferson in one report that the Negro boys who made nails were "doing a very good job, because the children are flogged."

Once, for a fight in a workshop, an American humanist sold a slave boy to southern plantations to intimidate other children, according to Jefferson himself, "as if death itself had taken him."

After Jefferson's death in his will, his beloved slave, the blacksmith Joseph Fossett, was freed, but his entire family - his wife and seven children - remained in slavery. Soon they were resold to other owners, Fossett managed to redeem only his wife. The unfortunate Joseph worked for ten years at the anvil in order to earn money to ransom the children, but even having saved up money, he could not do this: the new owners of his children changed their minds about selling them. The family was never reunited. In 1898, already a free man, the 83-year-old son of a blacksmith, Peter Fossett, recalled: "I will never forget when they put me on the auction platform and sold me like a horse."

It is amusing to recall another philosophical work of this president, which he titled modestly - "The Jefferson Bible." Its protagonist, named Jesus, is a clever man, a manager who created a grandiose corporation called "Christianity" from scratch. Well, in addition to the "Bible", another unique commandment of this founding father to his followers: "Carrot and stick is good, but not enough, other methods of control are needed."

It was Jefferson who, on his estates, created the original institution of informants from among free citizens. For little money (20-50 cents per month), these people had to observe the movements of slaves, their conversations, actions, and report their observations to the guards. Thanks to such informants, not a single slave escaped from Jefferson with their appearance, and if someone managed to steal something (a nail or clothes), the loss was immediately found, and the thief was punished. Thus, the world's first network of secret informants was created, later nicknamed in the United States the "second level of intelligence services" and proved to be excellent.

And here is what Dmitry Mikheev, a former senior fellow at the US Hudson Institute for Strategic Studies, already mentioned here, says about Jefferson: “The essence of Jefferson's activity is hypocrisy and lies. He himself wrote laws forbidding interracial mixing. Even if there is one drop of African blood, you are already a black man! Even if you're blond."

Already being the President of the United States, having a respectable wife (who was his second cousin) and six children, between times Jefferson actively cohabited with a mulatto slave, who also gave him six offspring.

Franklin and Hamilton

The Founding Fathers also include John Adams, John Jay and James Madison. But we will focus on two other figures.

Benjamin Franklin is the only one of the Founding Fathers who signed all three of the most important documents that to this day form the basis of the statehood of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Treaty of Versailles of 1783.

Writer, diplomat, Masonic activist, and philosopher, Franklin became the spiritual leader of the new American nation in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. But, based on his own views, spirituality is always inextricably linked with material gain. It is not surprising that the portrait of Benjamin Franklin is depicted on a hundred dollar bill - his descendants highly appreciated it. And by the way, it was Franklin who coined the phrase “time is money.”

Franklin developed the theoretical basis of American statehood, but his young follower Alexander Hamilton put materialistic ideas into practice. "Grey eminence", secretary of the treasury under two American presidents (Washington and Adams), Alexander Hamilton also entered the canonical seven of the founding fathers of the United States.

Hamilton fought all his life for a centralized federal state with strong presidential power. He spoke loudly about militaristic plans, advocated imperial policy in Latin America and participation in the affairs of Europe. We can say that it was Hamilton who laid all the foundations of modern American statehood: the US Army, the National Bank, the institution of the presidency, the federal nature of the state.

By the way, not only for the strength of thought, but also for the strength of the spirit, this man deserves admiration. Unlike most politicians, who enjoyed complete impunity, Hamilton paid with his life for his ideas. In 1804, during the election campaign for governor of New York, Alexander Hamilton sharply and harshly criticized his political opponent and ideological enemy Aaron Burr. Unable to withstand the attacks, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. After the command "To the barrier!" sounded, Burr fired, and Hamilton deliberately did not shoot. In his suicide note, he wrote: “My religious and moral principles are strongly against the practice of duels. The forced shedding of the blood of a human being in a private duel forbidden by law will hurt me." Burr's shot was fatal to Hamilton, but also ingloriously ended Burr's own political career.

However, the lives of many American leaders ended tragically. And in this regard, we should recall the so-called "presidential curse", or "Tecumseh's curse."

According to legend, in the XVIII century, the Indian leader Tecumseh, deceived by white colonists, dying, said a prayer. He asked the gods that every American leader (president) elected in a year divisible by 20 die or be killed before the end of his leadership (presidential term).

Incredibly, the curse clearly worked up to the seventh generation. The first, just a month after the inauguration, died American President William Henry Harrison (he took away from the Indians about 12 thousand square kilometers of land). Following him, all presidents elected or re-elected in a year divisible by 20 died in office (either by their own death or by an assassin's bullet). Namely: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Reagan broke the curse.

Washington

However, he was a very controversial person.

To Washington's credit, he freed all his slaves because he despised slavery. But this does not mean contempt for money. Money and power is a completely different matter.

Jefferson

And now let's take a look at the "Farm Book" written by Jefferson himself: learn a trade."

Once, for a fight in a workshop, an American humanist sold a slave boy to southern plantations to intimidate other children, according to Jefferson himself, "as if death itself had taken him."

Franklin and Hamilton

The Founding Fathers also include John Adams, John Jay and James Madison. But we will focus on two other figures.

However, the lives of many American leaders ended tragically. And in this regard, we should recall the so-called "presidential curse", or "Tecumseh's curse."

The attention of many readers and those interested in American history and culture can often be attracted to a phrase that occurs in American everyday life and political life, especially when it comes to history or some important contemporary events. Many representatives of the American establishment in their speeches use references to documents and letters that were written by the founding fathers, and sometimes it seems that for the American people these people are some kind of truth in the first instance.

Who are the founding fathers?

To understand this issue, you need to turn to history, namely the period of the end of the American Civil War and the subsequent signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 and the US Constitution. In the conditions of large-scale devastation caused by the split of society, in the context of further development and political structure, representatives of the Republican side thought about the question of what the structure of American society should be in order to meet all the requirements of a population divided into two parts.

Of course, none of them sought to give power to the opposing side or cede their privileges, so extensive work was carried out to find a solution.

What is the connection between Cleisthenes and the founders of the USA?

It is worth noting that all the founding fathers of the United States were representatives of the aristocratic circles of America and had extensive knowledge in many areas, which played an important role. Having assessed the situation from all sides, they decided to apply the model used in the 4th century BC for the new state. Cleisthenes, who is deservedly called the founding father of Athenian democracy.

The ancient democracy of the time of Cleisthenes interested the founding fathers of the United States in that under the conditions of government by aristocratic circles and subject to certain rules and legality by all members of society, support for such a system was present in all sectors of society. Of course, it is worth noting that in the time of Cleisthenes, the aristocracy differed in its qualitative characteristics from that which was present in Europe in the 18th-19th centuries.

What is the difference between the democracy of Cleisthenes and that proposed by the founders of the USA?

The main difference was that the aristocracy of the time of Cleisthenes was still young and full of energy, had no tendency to conservatism and rigidity in maintaining their own privileges at the expense of other classes. As a result, given the time to reflect and develop the idea of democracy in the aristocratic society of Athens, a working version of such a society was created. At the same time, the leadership of aristocratic circles was fully accepted by society and supported by all strata.

What features of American democracy were introduced by the Founding Fathers?

Building a society following the example of Cleisthenes almost completely suited the creators of the US Constitution. The Athenian example was taken as a basis with additions that allowed the chosen course to remain working for a long time and not lead to the degradation of society. So, one of the conditions that were introduced is the openness of the elites and the separation of powers.

These key points were implemented by the founding fathers of America through the change of power between different elites after a certain period of time with the participation of the general population and maintaining a balance between different political circles, which would not allow supporters of one direction to receive full power. The monopoly in the media was denied and there was complete freedom of information dissemination bodies alternative to the ruling circles, which had only one restriction - the dissemination of information related to state secrets. But all this would be only words if the fundamental principle of respect for strict legality was not enshrined in all democratic procedures. Thus, the creators of the US Constitution took into account most of the wishes of a society divided by the war and were able to quickly lead it to a peaceful life and prosperity, which is carefully preserved in the memory of many US citizens.

About the lists of the founding fathers

An interesting fact is that the original title "founding father" was used only for those who directly signed the Declaration of Independence. Later, based on the contribution to independence and democracy in the initial stages of formation, they were joined by those who were involved in the development of the Constitution, so today the lists of the founding fathers are conventionally divided into two parts.

Who worked on the Declaration?

Among the people who worked on the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, there were a large number of highly educated people of that time who had very different views on the processes taking place in the country and the world, different approaches to solving the pressing problems of American society and goals in life. With all this, representatives of the American elite, who took part in the development of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, understood that in order to overcome the large-scale crisis in the country, it was necessary to come to a unified position that could fully satisfy demand.

Benjamin Franklin

The solution of such a problem cannot do without individuals who, with their extraordinary abilities and ideas, can think more widely than others and see not only urgent solutions, but also solutions that can influence the future success of what was conceived. One of the founding fathers of America and scientist Benjamin Franklin was such a person. His figure stands out among others in that, being self-taught, he achieved recognition in the scientific field not only in America, but also in Europe. Benjamin was able to introduce into the document being developed such fundamentals as the value of life, freedom and property, which made this document congenial to all opponents in the conflict.

How was the outstanding performance of Benjamin Franklin recognized?

Thanks to his work, Benjamin Franklin rightfully bears the title of the First Citizen of the United States. Paying tribute to his contribution to the formation of a young state, the image of Benjamin Franklin was placed on the most popular $100 bill in the United States today.

How do Americans feel about these events?

The creation of the US Constitution by the founding fathers was a landmark event for the new state. To this day, their contributions are deeply respected by all Americans. To perpetuate the founding fathers in history, a large number of memorial sites were created and Constitution Day was proclaimed, which is still one of the main holidays in the United States. One of the most striking examples of the reverent attitude towards the founders of the United States in America is the inimitable and majestic monument to the founding fathers depicting the faces of 4 US presidents.

These are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, who are some of the most famous founders of the United States, and slightly behind Theodore Roosevelt as the successor to the establishment of democracy in the United States. The 18 m monument clearly reflects the attitude of the American people to the importance of these people for the life and history of the United States.