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Subject: [DiscerningAngels] The Founding Fathers of the United States of America
http://www.yorktownsailor.com/yorktown/foundingfathers.htm
The founding fathers of the United States of America
July 4, 1776
"Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
Our Founding Fathers paid the price for the United States of America.
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist
Copyright 2000 Boston Globe
On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted 12-0 -- New York abstained
-- in favor of Richard Henry Lee's resolution "that these United Colonies are,
and of right ought to be, free and independent States."
On July 4, the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson --
heavily edited by Congress -- was adopted without dissent. On July 8, the
Declaration was publicly proclaimed in Philadelphia. On July 15, Congress
learned that the New York Legislature had decided to endorse the Declaration.
On Aug. 2, a parchment copy was presented to the Congress for signature. Most
of the 56 men who put their name to the document did so that day.
And then?
We tend to forget that to sign the Declaration of Independence was to
commit an act of treason -- and the punishment for treason was death. To
publicly accuse George III of "repeated injuries and usurpations," to announce
that Americans were therefore "Absolved from all Allegiance to the British
Crown," was a move fraught with danger -- so much so that the names of the
signers were kept secret for six months
They were risking everything, and they knew it. That is the meaning of the
Declaration's soaring last sentence:
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the
Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives,
our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Most of the signers survived the war; several went on to illustrious
careers.
Two of them became presidents of the United States, and among the others
were future vice presidents, senators, and governors. But not all were so
fortunate.
Nine of the 56 died during the Revolution, and never tasted American
independence.
Five were captured by the British.
Eighteen had their homes -- great estates, some of them - looted or burnt
by the enemy.
Some lost everything they owned.
Two were wounded in battle.
Two others were the fathers of sons killed or captured during the war.
"Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." It was not just a
rhetorical flourish.
We all recognize John Hancock's signature, but who ever notices the names
beneath his? William Ellery, Thomas Nelson, Richard Stockton, Button Gwinnett,
Francis Lewis -- to most of us, these are names without meaning.
But each represents a real human being, some of whom paid dearly "for the
support of this Declaration" and American independence.
Lewis Morris of New York, for example, must have known when he signed the
Declaration that he was signing away his fortune. Within weeks, the British
ravaged his estate, destroyed his vast woodlands, butchered his cattle, and
sent his family fleeing for their lives.
Another New Yorker, William Floyd, was also forced to flee when the British
plundered his property. He and his family lived as refugees for seven years
without income. The strain told on his wife; she died two years before the war
ended.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, an aristocratic planter who had invested
heavily in shipping, saw most of his vessels captured by the British navy. His
estates were largely ruined, and by the end of his life he was a pauper.
The home of William Ellery, a Rhode Island delegate, was burned to the
ground during the occupation of Newport.
Thomas Heyward Jr., Edward Rutledge, and Arthur Middleton, three members of
the South Carolina delegation, all suffered the destruction or vandalizing of
their homes at the hands of enemy troops. All three were captured when
Charleston fell in 1780, and spent a year in a British prison.
"Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Thomas Nelson Jr. of Virginia raised $2 million for the patriots' cause on
his own personal credit. The government never reimbursed him, and repaying the
loans wiped out his entire estate. During the battle of Yorktown, his house,
which had been seized by the British, was occupied by General Cornwallis.
Nelson quietly urged the gunners to fire on his own home. They did so,
destroying it. He was never again a man of wealth. He died bankrupt and was
buried in an unmarked grave.
Richard Stockton, a judge on New Jersey's supreme court, was betrayed by
loyalist neighbors. He was dragged from his bed and thrown in prison, where he
was brutally beaten and starved. His lands were devastated, his horses stolen,
his library burnt. He was freed in 1777, but his health had so deteriorated
that he died within five years. His family lived on charity for the rest of
their lives.
In the British assault on New York, Francis Lewis's home and property were
pillaged. His wife was captured and imprisoned; so harshly was she treated that
she died soon after her release. Lewis spent the remainder of his days in
relative poverty.
And then there was John Hart. The speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, he
was forced to flee in the winter of 1776, at the age of 65, from his dying
wife's bedside. While he hid in forests and caves, his home was demolished, his
fields and mill laid waste, and his 13 children put to flight. When it was
finally safe for him to return, he found his wife dead, his children missing,
and his property decimated. He never saw any of his family again and died, a
shattered man, in 1779.
The men who signed that piece of parchment in 1776 were the elite of their
colonies. They were men of means and social standing, but for the sake of
liberty, they pledged it all -- their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor.
We are in their debt to this day.
Click here for the free previews of the Academy Award Winning Movie about
the USS Yorktown, "The Fighting Lady.
1.George Wythe
2.William Whipple
3. Joseph Bartlett
4. Thomas Lynch
5. Benjamin Harrison
6. Richard Henry Lee
7. Samuel Adams
8. George Clinton
9. William Paca
10. Samuel Chase
11. Rich. Stockton
12. L. Morris
13. Wm Floyd
14. A. Middleton
15. T. Heyward, Jr.
16. Charles Carroll of Carrollton
17. Robert Morris
18. T. Willing
19. Benjamin Rush
20. Elbridge Gerry
21. Robert Treat Paine
22. Wm. Hooper
23. Stephen Hopkins
24. Wm. Ellery
25. George Clymer
26. Joseph Hewes.
27. Geo Walton
28. Jas Wilson
29. A. Clark
30. F. Hopkinson
31. John Adams
32. Roger Sherman
33. Robert R. Livingston
34. Thomas Jefferson
35. Ben Franklin
36. Thomas Nelson, Jr.
37. Francis Lewis
38. Witherspoon
39.S.Huntington
40.William Williams
41. Oliver Wolcott
42. Chas. Thomson
43. John Hancock
44. George Read
45. John Dickinson
46. Edward Rutledge
47. Thomas McKean
48. P. Livingston
June 30, 2001
“Our Sacred Honor”
The signers of the Declaration of Independence live on.
By Matthew Spalding
It's almost July 4, and you know what that means: It won't be long
before you're reading an e-mail telling you all about the men who signed the
Declaration of Independence.
Trouble is, much of the information flying around the Internet
isn't reliable. Just ask Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, suspended last
year by his bosses for a column on the signers, the gist of which had been
zipping around on the Internet.
So, for the record, here's a portrait of the men who pledged "our
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" for liberty 225 years ago:
Fifty-six men from each of the original 13 colonies signed the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Nine of the signers were
immigrants, two were brothers and two were cousins. One was an orphan. The
average age of a signer was 45. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate at
70. The youngest was Thomas Lynch Jr. of South Carolina at 27.
Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were
farmers, and four were doctors. Twenty-two were lawyers — although William
Hooper of North Carolina was "disbarred" when he spoke out against the king —
and nine were judges. Stephen Hopkins had been governor of Rhode Island.
Forty-two signers had served in their colonial legislatures.
John Witherspoon of New Jersey was the only active clergyman to
attend. (Indeed, he wore his pontificals to the sessions.) Almost all were
Protestants. Charles Carroll of Maryland was the lone Roman Catholic.
Seven of the signers were educated at Harvard, four at Yale, four
at William & Mary, and three at Princeton. Witherspoon was the president of
Princeton, and George Wythe was a professor at William & Mary. His students
included Declaration scribe Thomas Jefferson.
Seventeen signers fought in the American Revolution. Thomas Nelson
was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and then commanded Virginia
military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William Whipple served with the New
Hampshire militia and was a commanding officer in the decisive Saratoga
campaign. Oliver Wolcott led the Connecticut regiments sent for the defense of
New York and commanded a brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of
General Burgoyne. Caesar Rodney was a major general in the Delaware militia;
John Hancock held the same rank in the Massachusetts militia.
The British captured five signers during the war. Edward Rutledge,
Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton were captured at the Battle of Charleston
in 1780. George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah.
Richard Stockton of New Jersey never recovered from his incarceration at the
hands of British Loyalists. He died in 1781.
Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was "hunted like
a fox by the enemy — compelled to remove my family five times in a few months
…". Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by the British
during the war.
Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis
Lewis's New York home was razed and his wife taken prisoner. John Hart's farm
and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey, and he died while
fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Nelson, both of Virginia, lent large sums
of their personal fortunes to support the war effort but were never repaid.
Fifteen of the signers participated in their states' constitutional
conventions, and six — Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Franklin, George Clymer,
James Wilson, and George Reed — signed the U.S. Constitution.
After the Revolution, 13 signers went on to become governors.
Eighteen served in their state legislatures. Sixteen became state and federal
judges. Seven became members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Six became
U.S. senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became Supreme Court justices.
Jefferson, Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each became vice president. Adams and
Jefferson later became president.
Five signers played major roles in the establishment of colleges
and universities: Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania; Jefferson and
the University of Virginia; Benjamin Rush and Dickinson College; Lewis Morris
and New York University; and George Walton and the University of Georgia.
Adams, Jefferson, and Carroll were the longest surviving signers.
Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence. Carroll was the last signer to die — in 1832 at
the age of 95.
Thankfully, their ideas live on.
[Sources:
Robert Lincoln, Lives of the Presidents of the United States, with
Biographical Notices of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
(Brattleboro Typographical Company, 1839);
John and Katherine Bakeless, Signers of the Declaration (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1969); Biographical Directory of the United States Congress,
1774-1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).]
—Matthew Spalding, director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for
American Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Read more about the most famous ship in the history of the US Navy,
The USS Yorktown
click here
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