Both John Jay of New York and Pierre Charles L'Enfant of France helped build America: Jay in Congress and on the bench, and L’Enfant on the battlefield and on the drawing board.
Both also built a solid foundation for the new republic, with Jay co-authoring the Federalist Papers and as the first Supreme Court chief justice, and L’Enfant designing the first seat of U.S. Congress (Federal Hall in New York City) and commissioned to design the new federal capital. Like anyone in government, politics altered their careers: Jay’s treaty with Britain was very unpopular with most Americans (Jay quipped he could walk the East Coast at night with his path lit with burning effigies of himself), and L’Enfant’s squabbles with city commissioners doomed his job. Without these two Founding Fathers, the federal government as we know it may not exist.
John Jay
• Chief Justice of New York Supreme Court
• Delegate to Continental Congress
• President of Continental Congress
• Founder of New York Manumission Society
• Minister to Spain
• Co-author of the Federalist Papers
• Secretary of Foreign Affairs
• First Supreme Court Chief Justice
• Brokered the Jay Treaty
• Governor of New York
• Jay, New York, Jay, Vermont, Jay County, Indiana, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York are named in his honor
Pierre Charles L’Enfant
• Continental Army veteran
• Patriot POW
• Corps of Engineers major
• Designed Federal Hall in New York City
• Commissioned to design federal capital
• The SS Pierre L’Enfant and L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. are named in his honor
Washington Bracket
1. George Mason 68%
- Caesar Rodney 32%
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4. John Witherspoon 64%
- Casimir Pulaski 36%
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- Daniel Morgan 38%
6. Frederick Muhlenberg 62%
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2. William Penn 80%
- William Blount 20%
Jefferson Bracket
1. Nathanael Greene 60%
- Robert R. Livingston 40%
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- William Paterson 42%
5. Edmund Randolph 58%
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3. John Carroll 67%
- Henry Muhlenberg 33%
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2. Richard Henry Lee 70%
- John Trumbull 30%
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Madison Bracket
1. Roger Williams 77%
- David Rittenhouse 23%
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4. Isaac Shelby 52%
- Joseph Warren 48%
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3. Henry Knox 50%
- George Wythe 50%
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2. Roger Sherman 75%
- George Clinton 25%
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Franklin Bracket
- John Jay
- Pierre Charles L’Enfant
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- James Otis
- John Dickinson
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- John Paul Jones
- Abraham Baldwin
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- Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
- Samuel Nicholas
FFFs and match-ups are determined by my interpretation of who I believe were the 32 greatest FFFs. Personal politics, favoritism and reader response was NOT a factor in selection or seeding. As for the tournament itself: each match-up will be conducted every 24 hours with a synopsis written by yours truly and readers can determine using the poll function who the winner should be for that match-up; there is no #1 overall seed; FFFs retain their seeds throughout; the winner of the Washington bracket will face the winner of the Jefferson bracket, and the winner of the Madison bracket will face the winner of the Franklin bracket; after having the first tie, I've decided the higher seed will win ties. I am not voting nor will I pick sides in discussion. I wish I could somehow do a more rigid time duration period for each round but there’s no guarantee I’ll be on a computer or awake at that time so I’m gonna say polling lasts until I post the next match-up, or roughly 24 hours later. Readers may choose whichever FFF contestant they wish, but the point of the tournament is to select the greatest Forgotten Founding Father — the most influential, most important, most impactful, who contributed the most to the Revolution and/or seeds of American liberty. Have fun!