The following chart enumerates European and Biblical contributions to
the founders' political thought. These are the people and sources that
the founders quoted most often. The political literature included in this
study was literature written by the founders of the United States between
1760 and 1805 (approximately one third of the significant secular literature
and about ten percent of the significant sermons).
| Frequency of Citation | ||
| Rank | Author | Percentage |
| 1 | St. Paul (Biblical) | 9.00% |
| 2 | Montesquieu (Enlightenment) | 8.30% |
| 3 | Sir William Blackstone (Common Law) | 7.90% |
| 4 | John Locke (Whig) | 2.90% |
| 5 | David Hume (Enlightenment) | 2.70% |
| 6 | Plutarch (Classical) | 1.50% |
| 7 | Cesar Beccaria (Enlightenment) | 1.50% |
| 8 | Trenchard & Gordon (Whig) | 1.40% |
| 9 | De Lolme (Enlightenment) | 1.40% |
| 10 | Baron Pufendorf (17th Century Protestant Political Theorist) | 1.30% |
| 11 | Sir Edward Coke (Puritan/Common Law) | 1.30% |
| 12 | Cicero (Classical) | 1.20% |
| 13 | Thomas Hobbes (17th Century Political Theorist) | 1.00% |
| 14 | Robertson (Enlightenment) | 0.90% |
| 15 | Hugo Grotius (17th Century Protestant Political Theorist) | 0.90% |
| 16 | Rousseau (Enlightenment) | 0.90% |
| 17 | Bolingbroke (Whig) | 0.90% |
| 18 | Francis Bacon (Puritan) | 0.80% |
| 19 | Price (Whig) | 0.80% |
| 20 | Shakespeare | 0.80% |
| 21 | Livy (Classical) | 0.80% |
| 22 | Alexander Pope (Enlight.) | 0.70% |
| 23 | John Milton (Puritan) | 0.70% |
| 24 | Tacitus (Classical) | 0.60% |
| 25 | Coxe (Whig) | 0.60% |
| 26 | Plato (Classical) | 0.50% |
| 27 | Abbe Raynal (Enlightenment) | 0.50% |
| 28 | Mably (Enlightenment) | 0.50% |
| 29 | Machiavelli | 0.50% |
| 30 | Vattel (Enlightenment) | 0.50% |
| 31 | Petyt | 0.50% |
| 32 | Voltaire (Enlightenment) | 0.50% |
| 33 | Robinson | 0.50% |
| 34 | Algernon Sydney (Whig) | 0.50% |
| 35 | Somers (Whig) | 0.50% |
| 36 | Harrington (Whig) | 0.50% |
| 37 | Rapin (Whig) | 0.50% |