12 Little Known Facts About the Founding of America

Two hundred and fifty years ago 56 delegates to the first Continental Congress, representing the original 13 colonies, risked their lives to write and sign the Declaration of Independence separating the United States of America from British rule. With that document, written over several 17 hot days in June 1776, and debated over two days – July 3 and 4 – the Founding Fathers defined a form of government never seen before. With his signature, it is said that Benjamin Franklin just hoped that future generations could maintain the original intent. Click for More News

Far from perfect, these men created a nation based on the ideas of English philosopher John Locke. Thomas Jefferson drew heavily from Locke’s 1689 work, “Two Treatises of Government,” which popularized the concepts of a “social contract” and the idea that all individuals possess natural, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. (constitutionfacts.com)

Here are a few little-known facts about these Founding Fathers and the creation of this country.

1.     Political rivals John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the exact same day: July 4, 1826. This was precisely the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. James Monroe died on the same date four years later. (interestingfacts.com)

2.     Legend says Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross made the first American flag, but this story was not popularized until nearly a century later by her grandson. It is not backed by hard evidence. Francis Hopkinson, a delegate to the Continental Congress from New Jersey, is widely recognized by historians as the author of the flag design that Congress adopted in 1777. Official records in the National Postal Museum show he billed the government for his flag design in 1780. Ross did make flags for the American military during the Revolutionary War. (readersdiagest.com and smithsonian.com)

3.   The first official document to name “The United States of America” is the Declaration of Independence. Prior to that, it was known as the “United Colonies,” among other variations. (readersdiagest.com)

4.   Sybil Ludington, often called the “female Paul Revere,” rode twice as far as Revere rallying hundreds of troops against the British. On the night of April 26, 1777, at just 16 years old, she reportedly rode 40 miles through the rainy New York and Connecticut countryside to warn Patriot militiamen that the British were attacking nearby Danbury, Connecticut. (amightygirl.com)

5.     Thomas Paine, whose pamphlets inspired the American Revolution, was imprisoned in France during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror for his disagreement with one of its initiators Maximilien Robespierre concerning the execution of King Louis XVI. Ironic, since the American Revolution inspired the French Revolution. He was sentenced to be executed by guillotine. He avoided death only because the prison guard made a bureaucratic error and placed the execution mark on the inside of his cell door instead of the outside. President James Monroe worked hard to get him released in November 1794. He ended up dying broke and despised for his work “The Age of Reason,” and his disillusionment with America. (history.com)

6.     There have been 27 versions of the American Flag. The original American flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes for the American Colonies. The flag has evolved as the country has expanded. New stars were added each time new states were added to the union until we ended up with the iteration we use today, with 50 stars and 13 stripes. This version, in use since 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii joined the country as states, is the longest-used rendition of the flag. (readersdiagest.com)

7. George Washington never actually campaigned to be president: He was simply chosen by the popular demand of the electoral college. This happened for both his first and second terms in office, with the elections of 1789 and 1792. He was also the only president ever to unanimously receive all electoral votes. This, in spite of the fact that he actually lost more battles than he won during the American Revolution. (readersdiagest.com)

8.   The oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States is located in Rhinebeck, New York, in the Hudson Valley. Called the Beekman Arms, it has been open and operating since 1766. This historical hotel counts George Washington, Benedict Arnold and Alexander Hamilton among its early guests—in fact, the tavern is said to be the place where Hamilton argued with Aaron Burr, leading to the fateful duel in which Hamilton was killed. (readersdiagest.com)

9.   While the Founding Fathers are often viewed as largely in agreement, and are often referred to as a single entity, as if they all worked together smoothly to create the nation, this is not true. In reality, they had extremely different views on all sorts of issues, including the role of the federal government, the issue of slavery, and how radical or moderate the American Revolution should be. At times, these differences of opinion destroyed friendships and threatened to pull the country apart. And it was not until the late 1910s that the phrase “Founding Fathers’ was made popular in the lexicon by Warren G. Harding when he was running for 29th president. (battlefields.org)

10. George Washington gave the shortest inauguration speech in American history on March 4, 1793. It was a mere 133 words long. William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address at 8,445 words. (constitutionalfacts.com and inaugural.senate.gov)

11. Thomas Jefferson died broke. Before his death, Jefferson was able to alleviate part of his financial problems by accepting $25,000 for his books from Congress. Those books were used to begin the Library of Congress, now the largest library collection in the world. (constitutionalfacts.com)

12. James Madison proposed that congressional pay be determined by the average price of wheat during the previous six years of a congressional session. (constitutionalfacts.com)

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