The selection of Founding Fathers can greatly affect your success in the game. Some are a lot more useful than others, some in my opinion are worthless or actually have a detrimental effect. Their usefulness depends on which level you are playing at, your geography and your current needs e.g. Are you on an island? Is your military weak? Do you have a cash flow problem?

Generally I go for Political leaders first, as they allow more liberty bells to be generated, which means you get new leaders faster and your colonies become more efficient and can support larger populations.

Then you can pick the best leaders from the remaining categories, the choice will depend mainly on which leaders are available at any time. The better leaders usually don't appear straight away though. Generally the better leaders apply to all Colonies or Units. Here is a table to help you decide: