Founding Fathers of the United States Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States were a group of philosophers, politicians, and writers who led the American Revolution against the Kingdom of Great Britain. Most were descendants of colonists settled in the Thirteen Colonies in North America. Historian Richard B. Morris in 1973 identified the following seven figures as the key Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington. Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were members of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay were authors of
United States Declaration of Independence declaration also influenced the Russian Empire. The document had a particular impact on the Decembrist revolt and other Russian thinkers. According to historian David Armitage, the Declaration of Independence did prove to be internationally influential, but not as a statement of human rights. Armitage argued that the Declaration was the first in a new genre of declarations of independence that announced the creation of new states. Other French leaders were directly influenced by the text of the Declaration of Independence itself. The "Manifesto of the Province of Flanders" (1790) was the first foreign derivation of the Declaration; others include the