I wouldn't be surprised if many administrations altered history.
As for research, I have done a fair amount and I'm very skeptical about what I find. I've even run into other researchers. One of which researched for 40 years. He even searched through gov't archives getting certified copies of documents to back up his findings.
I don't have any faith in voting, especially for the higher up positions. For president, it isn't the popular vote that picks president. I figure you know about the electoral college. To me, voting just gives the illusion people get to decide and make a choice.
If voting was truly on the up and up, IMO, every ballot should have a choice for 'none of the above'. Then if the people didn't like any of the candidates, and picked that option, they'd have to do away with those candidates and get new ones for another election. (No electoral college)
They do have a "none of the above" - it's called a write-in candidate. I suggest you check out
http://www.wallbuilders.com/ as he actually bought a lot of the original writings of the founding fathers because he didn't trust the copies in the archives. They paint a very different view. Trash the current system, it has failed, because the system is built on the population taking responsibility for their own actions and holding the politicians accountable. Since society has collapsed, the government has collapsed. Nothing you can do about that. Our system of government is terrible, but it's still the best one out there.
Most (I didn't say all) of the founding fathers were Christians through and through. "If you ask any American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ." [The Committees of Correspondence]. The cry across the colonies was "No King by King Jesus!" The first prayer in Congress in Philadelphia ended with this: "All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and Saviour, Amen." The first printed bible (King James) was by the Congress.
"The highest glory of the American Revolution, said John Quincy Adams, was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." John Wingate Thorton.
"From the day of the Declaration ... the (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct."
John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1837.
"You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are." George Washington
"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ." Thomas Jefferson
A lot more here:
http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=8755
My favorite founding father was Patrick Henry.
God rose up, blessed and used the United States in a way that only can be compared to that of Israel. The lives of the founding fathers were beyond exemplary in how men should live. Where they perfect, by no means, they were like us, men of sin. But their dedication and sacrifice have no equal in all of history except those written in the word of God. It sickens me to the core how evil our society and the government it represents all too well have become. Compare France to America - we each had a revolution almost at the same time. Which and why did they diverge so much the truth? The men and women that lead it.