Founders

Alexander Hamilton First Treasury Secretary and principal author of The Federalist Papers, who built the early republic's finances and argued for an energetic national government. George Mason Virginia planter and author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights who refused to sign the Constitution for lack of a bill of rights. George Washington Commander of the Continental Army and first president, whose Farewell Address warned against faction and foreign entanglement. James Madison Virginia statesman and fourth president, principal architect of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and a co-author of The Federalist Papers. John Adams Massachusetts lawyer, first vice president and second president, who argued for independence and wrote the framework for republican constitutions. John Jay Founder, diplomat and first Chief Justice of the United States, co-author of the Federalist Papers and negotiator of the Treaty of Paris and the Jay Treaty. Thomas Jefferson Principal author of the Declaration of Independence and third president, a champion of limited government, religious freedom and agrarian republicanism.