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Questions tagged [founding-fathers]

Individuals (of both genders) who participated in the revolution against Great Britain, the foundation of the United States, and the formation of the government(s) of those United States.

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Were any U.S. founding fathers present at the storming of the Bastille?

Were any U.S. founding fathers present at the storming of the Bastille? I heard that Thomas Paine was "cheering on" the French Revolution.
Geremia's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
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What's the source of John Adams's quote against the two-party system?

Drutman, Lee. “America Is Now the Divided Republic the Framers Feared.” The Atlantic, January 2, 2020. claims John Adams said a division of the republic into two great parties … is to be dreaded as ...
Geremia's user avatar
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1 vote
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Where can I find a comprehensive collection of all American Founding Fathers' writings?

I was taught in school that the Founding Fathers of America were very prolific and that they produced many documents during their time, including books, pamphlets, magazines, letters, diaries, etc. ...
GDP2's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is it reasonable to claim that peaceful transfers of power began, globally, in the United States? [closed]

One of my children's history textbooks claimed that Adams' peaceful concession to Jefferson following the US election in 1800 was the first peaceful transfer of power between rival executives in ...
rob's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
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Did Benjamin Franklin say "Holland is not a nation but a shop"? Why?

Several letter-writers to (serious) Dutch newspapers have quoted Benjamin Franklin as having said: "Holland is not a nation but a shop". Why did Franklin say this (if he did)? Google finds ...
NL_Derek's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
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Did Hamilton really send Burr an "itemised list of thirty years of disagreements"?

In the production of Hamilton, during the song "Your Obedient Servant", which imagines the conversation between Aaron Burr and Hamilton shortly before their duel, the following exchange ...
Lou's user avatar
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16 votes
4 answers
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Was there a "secret" recording of the American founding fathers' deliberations?

I remember that there was someone who wrote down the stuff the founding fathers talked about behind closed doors. Can't remember his name. Who was he again?
user1050755's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
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What developments in Jefferson's life caused him to withdraw from the topic of slavery in political discourse?

Where Jefferson once saw slavery as the central flaw in Virginia, a sentiment he forcibly expressed in his Notes on the State of Virginia, he later “began to adjust his thinking to concentrate instead ...
Vincent Huang's user avatar
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2 answers
872 views

How did Thomas Jefferson's time in France influence his views of women?

Jefferson seemed to believe for some time that women were consigned to domestic duties while men were tasked food, shelter, protection, public debate, and politics. He went so far, in 1816, to declare ...
Vincent Huang's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
726 views

Why Did the Founding Fathers Create the Electoral College? [duplicate]

I am familiar with the problems with the electoral college in America (I wrote a six page formal academic essay on it), but I am still confused as to why the founding fathers created and implemented ...
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What were the founding fathers' views on Native Americans? [closed]

What were the founding fathers' views on Native Americans? Did the founding fathers have a lack of respect for the natives, or were they accounted for positively in the enacting of the constitution? ...
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Did people at the time think that the founding fathers were religious men? [closed]

People today think for some reason that the founding fathers were religious men, you know "Good-old Christians" and the sort. Of course this isn't exactly true. Sure, they did think a god of some ...
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7 votes
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Did the 'founding fathers' of the United States see Oliver Cromwell as a role model?

Did they like Oliver Cromwell, who founded a republic after a dispute about taxes led to the overthrow of a king, or did they see him as a usurping Caesar who destroyed a republic and became a tyrant?
Ne Mo's user avatar
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Were Jefferson and Madison Jacksonians?

Were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Jacksonians? They were founders of the Republican or Democratic-Republican Party, and many Republicans left the party to support Jackson and then found the ...
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1 answer
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Were the Puritans for a State Church?

In a book titled America's Providential History it states on page 84 that The major Puritan weakness was their holding to the idea of a State Church. They saw nothing wrong with a National church....
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1 answer
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Are there cases of U.S. Founding Fathers burning flags of other nations?

After reviewing some arguments for and against flag burning I became curious as to whether or not there were documented cases of the U.S. Founding Fathers (or politically influential people of the ...
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11 votes
2 answers
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What can be said about conditions of slaves owned by George Washington?

I remember hearing a PBS documentary make a claim that the babies of slaves on George Washington's Mount Vernon went naked in winter. I have been trying to verify, or even get a good citation, for ...
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What did the founding fathers of America think about immigration?

Once time ago Benjamin Franklin asked "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglifying them?" ...
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5 votes
1 answer
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Did the American Founders Debate on the Relative Size of the Government?

It seems to me that the concern with the size of government, specifically that it's too large and therefore complex, is a relatively modern concern in American politics. I would assume that given the ...
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4 votes
1 answer
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Did the founding fathers think civil wars would be frequent?

I think I remember learning that one of the founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson maybe?) wrote (in a Federalist Paper maybe?) that there would need to be a civil war about once a generation to sustain ...
Kip's user avatar
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17 votes
3 answers
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Did the Founding Fathers of the USA really make a distinction between a Republic and a Democracy (and despised the latter)?

I've come across this video that makes a distinction between a Democracy (rule of majority) vs Republic (rule of law). It contests that a Republic is a state that is designed to protect the rights of ...
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12 votes
7 answers
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Is there any country where the founder of the nation is no longer respected? [closed]

Founders of nations are often known as the "Father of the Nation". These people are charismatic leaders who have gone through hardship in creating a nation for the independence of their country, and ...
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13 votes
4 answers
5k views

Founding Fathers and the American Civil War

I was reading an article and was wondering if there is anything out there to indicate that the Founding Fathers saw the potential for conflict regarding these specific points: Economic and ...
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