[Ads-l] Founding Fathers

[Baker, John]

Nice citation, Garson.  I’m not sure whether this is the term proper or not, but it is at a minimum an early use (the earliest found, I believe) of the general term “founding fathers” (and predating the related term “founding members,” which is in the OED) and shows the evolution of the term nicely.  It is also further evidence that, however much a role Harding may have played in popularizing the term, he did not originate it.


John



From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2024 6:58 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Founding Fathers

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Intriguing topic. Excellent work, John.
Here is a citation from 1886 that seems to use the term “founding
fathers” to refer to the individuals who created the United States.
The essay is about patriotism. No specific statesmen are named. The
term “founding fathers” is not capitalized here, and the constitution
is not mentioned. Nevertheless, this citation may be relevant to the
evolution of the term.

Year: 1886
Book Title: The One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the
Consociations, Fairfield East and Fairfield West: With the Historical
Address, and Other Addresses and Proceedings, at the Congregational
Church, Fairfield, Conn., June 8, 1886
Chapter: Patriotism In Our Churches
Chapter Author: Rev. Edward Anderson
Start Page 42, Quote Page 45
Publication Info: The Standard Association Printers, Bridgeport, Connecticut

https://books.google.com/books?id=re5C-7xDS5MC&q=%22founding+fathers%22#v=snippet&<https://books.google.com/books?id=re5C-7xDS5MC&q=%22founding+fathers%22#v=snippet&>

[Begin excerpt]
Talk of the sacred blood of '76!
. . .
Our land has been made secure (who doubts it) because of the Christian
principle that underlies it, as shown in the deeply religious phaze of
our war. Are prayers of the founding fathers to be echoed in prayers
of the establishing sons, for nothing? Not if God lives, and not if
there is truth in the history of his national leading all the way from
Israel to now.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Aug 21, 2024 at 6:03 PM Baker, John
<000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu<mailto:000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu>> wrote:
>
> An article in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal today (by D.G. Hart, not Ben Zimmer) asserts that the term "Founding Fathers" was coined by Warren G. Harding in a speech at the 1916 Republican National Convention. The article is a review of Michael D. Hattem, The Memory of '76: The Revolution in American History (Yale Univ. Press 2024), and the assertion probably derives from that source. This is actually earlier than the OED, which has nothing earlier than 1941 for founding father, an American statesman of the Revolutionary period, esp. a member of the American Constitutional Convention of 1787. But of course it can be antedated.
>
> The earliest I see is from a perhaps surprising source, The Sydney Morning Herald, Nov. 15, 1892, at 5, col. 7 (Newspapers.com), quoting a speech by G.H. Reid (presumably George Houston Reid, later prime minister of Australia) at a mass meeting of freetraders celebrating the election of Grover Cleveland as President of the United States: "In that magnificent electoral revolution which had effaced Harrison and placed Cleveland upon the highest pinnacle of national confidence which had shipwrecked the Republican party and given to the Democrats their grandest opportunity, they saw born again the grand and fearless spirit of the founding fathers of the American Constitution - (loud cheers) -who abhorred injustice, and for liberty's sake braved death in a thousand forms."
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> Next is a newspaper heading in the Marion (Ohio) Weekly Star, Feb. 19, 1910 (Newspapers.com): "An Iconoclast Hits Patriots | A Boston Writer Whacks the Founding Fathers, | Severely Jolting Patriotic Idols | Proclaims Adams Defaulter and Franklin a Thief" (title). This is on the first page of Part Two, which Newspapers.com calls page 8. According to Wikipedia, Harding owned the Marion Weekly Star, so the headline may well have been his wording.
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> Harding also used the term several times prior to his 1916 speech. The earliest of these I see (not counting the 1910 use in his newspaper) is from his speech nominating President Taft for re-election at the 1912 Republican National Convention: "Human rights and their defense are as old as civilization; but more important in us the founding American fathers wrote the covenant of a people's rule into the bond of national life beyond all erasure or abridgement." The Des Moines News, June 23, 1912, at 4 col. 3 (NewspaperArchive).
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> Another example, also quoting a speech by Harding, is from the Hamilton Evening Journal, Apr. 2, 1915, Part 2, at 2, col. 7 (NewspaperArchive): "The founding fathers gave us an American merchant marine which carried more than 90 per cent of our commerce across the seas." NewspaperArchive considers this page 10, and the last few words are on what NewspaperArchive considers page 14.
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> John Baker
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