[Congressman Billybob]

I care not what reason others have for using the word Framers, rather than the phrase Founding Fathers. My reason is quite specific. To my view, the FF refers only to those who met in Philadelphia to write the Constitution.

On the other hand, to my view the Framers are ALL of those who played critical roles in the creation of our nation. Sam Adams was nowhere near Philadelphia -- but I count him as a Framer because he created the Sons of Liberty. Tom Paine was not there, but he wrote the words that made us a nation in Common Sense and The American Crisis. Patrick Henry refused to take his elected position in Philadelphia because, as he his purported to have said, "I smelt a rat."

My purpose is to include all of them, including the one that almost no one pays attention to, George Wythe, when I use that word. There's no "dark side" in my writing and thinking.

John / Billybob

[Political Junkie Too]

I agree with your sentiment, but I think you have your terms reversed. According to my dictionary, the word frame, in its verb form, means (among other things) "to compose, to compress in words, frame a treaty or a question."

I would call the people you named Founding Fathers because their influence goes beyond framing the Constitution. I would also add the signatories of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington as Founding Fathers, too. For me, the word Framer doesn't do Washington justice.

Just my opinion...

-PJ