To be clear, Jackson wasn't really literally calling them the "Founding Fathers." The country was a little too young for that. In fact, James Madison, one of the signers of the Constitution, was still alive. But he was helping to mythologize those men we know now as the Founding Fathers by putting them on a patriotic pedestal. He even went so far as to call them "the sages" (16).

Jackson wanted the Nullies to believe that they were letting the Founding Fathers down. And that they should feel really, really bad for it (have you noticed a repeating theme here yet?). By invoking these historical figures as many times as he does, he's actually using their memory as a rhetorical device, calling the Nullies out and stating that they "are not champions of liberty emulating the fame of our Revolutionary fathers, nor are you an oppressed people, contending, as they repeat to you, against worse than colonial vassalage" (36).

Jackson was trying to send out this message: "Now, our Revolutionary fathers, these guys are the real patriots. And you Nullies, you're just posers. They dealt with real adversity, while you just sit there whining about a measly little tax. Boohoo, it must be really hard being from South Carolina. Now go home before you further tarnish the image of the real heroes of this nation."