I think there are definite “Founding Fathers”, and for me they would be of the “First string” names, like Washington, Franklin and Jefferson and John Adams too, people like that. Indeed for my money (no dollar bill pun intended!) it’s a rather ill defined and indeed personal decision who you would describe as an FF. For instance I’d not single out every signer of the Declaration but certainly everyone who drafted it must be considered one, for it was their words and ideas that were accepted. However the on the other hand the members of the first 2 Congresses cannot be all excluded for the same reason, I mean you could argue that every soldier in the Continental army was one, so it’s hard to quantify for me. I do agree that the name is often used to unrealistic extremes by publishers, it’s an emmotive tag.
Josh.