Signers of the Declaration of Independence"The Declaration of Independence was to set forth the moral justification of a rebellion against a long-recognized political tradition--the divine right of kings. At issue was the fundamental question of whether men's rights were God-given or whether these rights were to be dispensed by governments to their subjects. This document proclaimed that all men have certain inalienable rights. In other words, these rights came from God." (Ezra Taft Benson, "Our Priceless Heritage," Ensign, Nov. 1976, 33)
Over a period of a little more than one hundred years, thirteen colonies had been organized and more-or-less settled by British citizens. As you know, these immigrants came for a variety of reasons: some were in pursuit of religious freedom; some were seeking adventure and a new life; others came expecting great riches in this land of opportunity; and still others were actually sent here in fulfillment of a criminal sentence...
As the colonies were being established, they were almost completely dependent upon Great Britain for survival. Everything from food and clothing, to construction materials, transportation and military protection were all provided by the British. And of course, all of this came with a certain price. That price included observance of British laws, which did not always make much sense within the context of the relatively primitive colonies; recruitment of armed forces to fight in British armies and navies; and taxation. As the colonies began to prosper -- so did the rate of taxation.
Now by-and-large these colonists were loyal British subjects. The thought of rebellion was quite foreign to them. But the more they were squeezed by the British Empire for taxes and military recruits -- with no legal voice in these matters -- the more the dream of freedom spread, and the conviction that something had to be done to protect their basic rights and dignity.
In the spring of 1776, fifty-six delegates representing each of the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia to discuss this problem. The great majority of them certainly hadn’t arrived in the "City of Brotherly Love" to produce a document that would launch a revolution and change the political world forever! Indeed, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia read from his resolution before the assembly "...that these united colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states...", it nearly brought the convention to an end.
Following a terrific debate, however, Lee’s motion eventually carried on July 2, 1776. But the Declaration itself was nearly defeated until John Adams of Massachusetts and Patrick Henry of Virginia overcame the opposition with a series of brilliant and impassioned speeches. You might not be aware that the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence passed by a majority of only one vote.
The casting of that deciding vote brought about one of the most dramatic incidents of the day... Word had reached Caesar Rodney of Delaware that the convention was deadlocked, and about to be adjourned without resolution. He rose from his sickbed and rode some 80 miles on horseback through a blinding storm to Philadelphia. Rodney reached his seat in what is now Independence Hall – exhausted – but just in time to say, "I vote yes!"
Although roughly half the delegates had opposed the Declaration, all of them eventually signed the document. And to a man, all unfailingly supported the War for Independence.
Putting their names to the document automatically labeled the delegates as rebels. King George III had denounced all rebels in America as traitors, and the punishment for treason was death by hanging. Due to this death sentence, the names were kept secret for six months. For each man knew the full meaning of that magnificent last paragraph... in which his signature pledged his life, fortune, and sacred honor.
Fifty-six men placed their names beneath that pledge. Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. Fifty-six men knew that when they signed they were risking everything. They knew if they won this fight, the best they could expect would be years of hardship in a struggling new nation. If they lost, they’d face a hangman’s rope. But they signed... and pledged... and they did, indeed, pay the price.
Here is the documented fate of some of those fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence:
Francis Lewis, New York delegate, saw his home plundered and his estates, in what is now Harlem, completely destroyed by British soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.
William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home, they found a devastated ruin.
Phillips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause.
Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.
Robert Morris, one of the stronger opponents of the Declaration, became known as "the financier of the revolution". He met Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry. One of the wealthiest individuals in the colonies at the beginning of the revolution, Morris died penniless and forgotten.
John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his Homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.
Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country.
Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers.
Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live to see the triumph of the evolution. His family was forced to live off charity.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas during the war. To pay his debts he lost his home and all his properties, and died in rags.
Thomas McKean of Delaware was so harassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times in as many months. He served in Congress without pay -- his family in poverty and in hiding.
Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, bankrupt, a few years later at the age of 50.
George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.
Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.
John Morton, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I rendered to my country."
William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground.
Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage He and his young bride were drowned at sea.
Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large land holdings and estates.
Like some of the others at the convention, John Hancock already had a bounty on his head. Referring to the 500-pound reward being offered by the King for his capture, Hancock greatly enlarged his normal signature so "that His Majesty could now read [his] name without glasses, and [might] now double the reward." One of the wealthiest men in New England, he stood outside Boston one terrible night of the war and said, "Burn Boston, though it makes John Hancock a beggar, if the public good requires it."
And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark. He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to the infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York harbor known as the hell ship "Jersey," where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father.
Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create, is still intact. These were men of great physical and moral courage.
With the possible exception of Samuel Adams, to whom friends had given a new suit so that he might be presentable in Congress, most signers were also men of substantial property, education, and social position.
Of the fifty-six, almost half–24–were judges and lawyers. 14 were farmers and owners of large plantations, eleven were wealthy merchants, four were doctors, and one was a banker. Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20’s.
When the Declaration of Independence was signed by the American patriots assembled in Philadelphia, there were in existence, and in rebellion against Great Britain, thirteen colonies extending along the Atlantic seaboard from Massachusetts to Georgia. In round numbers, the total population was less than 3,000,000. They were not a military people. They were a farming and frontier population. The task immediately before them, in an economic way, was the subjugation of the wilderness. They had no great stores of munitions of war, nor were they well supplied with arms. Their commerce was primitive and depended upon the favor and shipping of the nation with which they were at war. They had no great military geniuses among them, and in the eyes of many of the colonists themselves it was a forlorn hope, this dream of independence. (B. H. Roberts, Defense of the Faith and the Saints, Vol.2, p.534-535)
The fact that the colonies succeeded in the face of such overwhelming odds in winning their independence must necessarily argue the support of our Heavenly Father who intervened in the affairs of this nation. It seems unlikely that the world will ever again witness a group of individuals – rebels – who could so ennoble the character of man, as did those fifty-six signers of our Declaration of Independence.
The Constitution
Now during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 -- which in four months drew up the basic laws of our land -- the Congress at one time was about to adjourn in utter confusion. The attempt to establish a lasting union had apparently failed. At this crucial moment, eighty-one-year-old Benjamin Franklin arose, and is reported to have said, "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were generously answered... I have lived a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it possible that an empire can rise without His aid?" Then Franklin proposed that the Congress seek divine aid, and they should begin each session with a petition to the Almighty. (The Red Carpet, p. 105.)
The Constitution was designed to work only with a moral and righteous people. "Our Constitution," said John Adams (first vice-president and second president of the United States), "was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
The United States Constitution is comprised of 7 Articles and 26 Amendments. It is one of the shortest constitutions in the world. It is relatively modest and indistinct, but is unique in a number of ways:
(For further reading: The Miracle of Philadelphia, by Catherine Drinker Bowen.) |
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