Renown American Historian Jill Lapore notes in her 2010 work The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History that officially the first documented use of the term "Founding Fathers" was made by Warren G. Harding at the Republican National Convention in 1916 and he used the term again in his inauguration speech in 1921. Harding stated, "Standing in this presence, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion, feeling the emotions which no one may know until he senses the great weight of responsibility for himself, I must utter my belief in the divine inspiration of the founding fathers."

Though these instances are the first documented use of the the term, the idea that the leaders of the Revolutionary Generation served as a father figures for the young American nation first became popular in the early nineteenth century. Francois Furstenberg's In the Name of the Father: Washington's Legacy, Slavery and the Making of Nation does a wonderful job in pointing out that while Washington had been held in high esteem since the end of the American Revolution, many others of the founding generation had suffered attacks to their character and their vision for the nation during the economic depression of the immediate postwar years. During the early nineteenth century, the gradual elimination of voter restrictions led to the expansion of the franchise to include nearly all white males and unprecedented levels of political participation. This rise of what many historians call "Jacksonian Democracy" (named for the President who most benefited from of expansion of the franchise) coincided with dramatic marketplace revolution, which transformed the economy of the American Republic from predominantly self-sustaining households to an economy that was increasingly industrialized and profit driven. Working within a Marxist framework, historians like Charles Sellers have argued that the beginnings of an industrialized economy and the transformation of the American workforce caused a great deal of unrest among American artisans who were among those most affected by the marketplace revolution. This unrest was only further exacerbated by the economic downturn of the 1830s. Skilled artisans began protesting the transformation of both the economy and the social structure of the United States. In his work The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution, Alfred Young demonstrates that the frustrated artisanal class saw themselves, along with American farmers, as being deprived of the promises of freedom and prosperity they had fought for during the American Revolution. In attempt to quell this dissatisfaction, Young highlights how the emerging capitalist class sought to reframe the actions of the Revolutionary Generation. Rather than depict these men as rebels who fought against established English hierarchy, they depicted these revolutionary men as "founders" and visionaries of the great Republic that was being built through territorial expansion and economic transformation. It was during this period, only a decade after the last of founding generation had died, that the collective image of the founders began being idolized for their accomplishments. It should also be noted, however, that during the secession crisis and ensuing Civil War that the concept of the "Founding Fathers" would be revisited and debated with the Confederacy adopting many of these men as champions of self-determination and, ironically, liberty from oppression.