Agreed, Alex. And I think the substitution of brothers, at the very least, is still a subtle way of diluting the importance of the contributions of men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin to the forming and shaping of the republic. To imply, to any degree, that these figures were not the major influence in the formation of the United States is just nonsensical, and historically wrong.

(that's brothers, in the sense of a squabbling family...)

tsuwm, do you have a citation or definition that supports this semantic for the word "brothers"?...that's a new one on me.