Who's your favourite Founding Father?

Hal those action figures are awesome! I might have to collect them all!

(there are not enough female action figures there, though, I noticed. Looks like Martha Washington is a smurfette. the slut.

Hamilton, creator of modern deficit spending. He brought down the commies!

Second, Dolly Madison make some scrumptious pastries…

Franklin by a hair. Politician, scientists, writer, roue – a genius at everything he tried.

Jefferson second, for his political and religious philosophies, plus the declaration.

Another plug for Jemmy Madison. If he hadn’t kept those copious notes, would we be able to have those endlessly fascinating debates over what the Convention “really meant” by some obscure phrase that defies lexical analysis?

Great story. :smiley: Another reason for lawyers everywhere to like Marshall: I recall reading somewhere that he started the practice of assigning one judge to write the majority opinion. Prior to that, each judge wrote an opinion in each case. Imagine having to figure out what the heck was going on if you had to read nine opinions for every case!

Another Madison fan checking in, and i’m actually surprised at how few of us there are. Although i admit that much of my admiration for him stems from his intellectualism, and not simply from his politics.

Federalist #10 is one of the most imortant political documents in American history.

Another vote for Thomas Paine.

All of whom suffer by not being alive during the American Revolution. :slight_smile:

Another big fan of George Washington here. As noted above, he was extraordinarily principled, ambitious, confident, insightful, and disciplined. Abigail Adams observed - correctly - that he was “modest, wise and good.” Led the Continental Army for eight years, losing a lot but winning brilliantly when the opportunities presented themselves (Trenton, Princeton, Yorktown). Would rather have retired to Mount Vernon, but risked his prestige to successfully chair the Constitutional Convention. Still denied retirement by his country, he virtually invented the Presidency, and guided the country through its first eight difficult and treacherous years. Gave up power willingly time and again, when some would have made him king.

After that: Ben Franklin (inventor, scientist, diplomat, writer, ladies’ man) and Alexander Hamilton (visionary economist and political theorist).

I’m not a big fan of Thomas Jefferson, actually. Read Joseph J. Ellis’s Founding Brothers and you’ll see what a sneaky bastard he could be, as well as a hypocrite. Not much to point to during his White House years other than the Louisana Purchase (in direct contradiction to his oft-stated views on enumerated powers) and sending out Lewis and Clark. He wrote a good Declaration, though, I gotta give him that.

P.S. I actually have that Washington action figure at home! Got it as a birthday present a few years ago.