Were the Founders Deists? (pt. 1)

In Carson Clark's recent post "Debunking the Fourth: Top 10 Unsightly Facts about the American Revolution," I once again ran across a claim that seems to have grown progressively louder and more ubiquitous with the retelling since I first heard it in the early 1990s.  This is the claim that the American Founders (or at least the ones that really mattered) were not Christians at all...but Deists.

Typically, the claim is made either to argue for one more extension of the seemingly unquestioned "separation of church and state" doctrine, or else to undercut patriotism born of the notion that "America was founded as a Christian nation."  Now, there are legitimate reasons to encourage a vigorous debate on both the proper relation of Church and State, and to challenge the sort of unbridled patriotism exhibited in slogans like Stephen Decatur's famous: "My country, right or wrong..."

Nevertheless, I'm kind of a stickler for old fashioned things like "facts."  I think the meanings of words, and whether we are using them accurately, matters.  This is what has made me increasingly suspicious as it regards the Founders-as-Deists claim.  There are a number of very specific questions (it seems to me) that need to be answered before we go off uncritically accepting this assertion, and (consequently) accepting whatever conclusion(s) its proponent(s) claim flow from it.

1. What is the specific documentary evidence for the claim that "the Founders" were deists?
2. What are the specific traits/experiences/activities, etc. necessary for us to describe an individual as being one of "the Founders"? 
3. Precisely how many of the Founders have left us sufficient documentary evidence to make a reasonable supposition regarding their individual metaphysical beliefs? (Even irrefutable proof that Thomas Jefferson was a Deist is insufficient to ground the claim that "the Founders" were Deists. )
4. Exactly what definition of "Deist" are we presuming?  Is "Deist" to be set over against "Christian" as though these describe to wholly separate and alien faiths; Or might "Deist" be a particular theological view within the broader field of Christian thought about the nature of God?  An example might be the questions of:  Open Theism, Patripassianism, Trinitarianism, Monarchianism, etc.)

I intend this post to be the first in a series in which I explore these four questions.  As Mr. Clark's post was the originator of my reflections and responses, I expect to return to his specific verbiage and argumentation in  my future posts.  To his credit, Clark does anticipate and address some of concerns in his original post (which I would encourage any of my readers to consider in full) but I am not sure I "buy" his explanations...But, who knows?  Perhaps he will have me convinced by the end of this process.

I welcome you to join me on this particular quest for understanding.