page_title: Republicanism in the United States
section_title: Founding Fathers
hierarchical_section_title: Republicanism in the United States / The American Revolution / Founding Fathers
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait by Mather Brown
context_page_description: Republicanism in the United States is a set of ideas that guides the government and politics. These ideas have shaped the government, and the way people in the United States think about politics, since the American Revolution.
  The American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and even the Gettysburg Address were based on ideas from American republicanism.
  "Republicanism" comes from the word "republic." However, they are not the same thing. A republic is a type of government. Republicanism is an ideology – set of beliefs that people in a republic have about what is most important to them.
context_section_description: The "Founding Fathers" were strong supporters of republican values, especially Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.
  For example, Thomas Jefferson once wrote that a government that had the most possible participation by "its citizens in mass" (all the people together) was the safest kind.  He said a republic is:
  ...a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules established by the majority... [T]he powers of the government, being divided, should [each] be exercised ... by representatives chosen...for such short terms as should render secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents. [T]he mass of the citizens is the safest [protector] of their own rights.
  In Simple English, Jefferson was saying: 'A republic is a government where all its citizens act together, based on rules that most of them have agreed on.  The government's powers should be divided, and each power should be carried out by representatives that the people choose.  They should serve terms (times in office) that are short enough to make sure they are doing what the people want.  All the people, together, are the best protectors of their own rights.'
  The Founding Fathers often talked about what "republicanism" meant.  In 1787, John Adams defined it as "a government, in which all men, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, officers and people, masters and servants, the first citizen and the last, are equally subject to the laws."
caption: John Adams wrote that in a republican government, every man has to follow the laws equally
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