The 56 who signed for us

It’s a glorious day. 

Come Saturday, July 4, that’s how we should feel. 

As many people have often said: Being an American is winning life’s lottery. Nowhere in the world are people as free as we are.

In spite of the deranged ingrates disavowing our nation, the truth is we should be deeply grateful for all we have. 

Grateful to the 25,000 Colonists who died for the cause of Liberty during the Revolutionary War; and grateful to the 56 courageous, visionary men who signed the Declaration of Independence, a document that changed the course of mankind for the better.

With their signatures on that parchment, each of the Signers became a marked man, destined for prison or a hanging if captured.

They knew the risk. But, by God and with God, they were sticking to their convictions: 

“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.”

So ask yourself on this 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: Would you have signed the Declaration? Knowing there were traitorous countrymen everywhere willing to expose you.

Would you sign such a document today knowing it would put a bounty on you and your family?

We can only imagine what it was like on July 2 and July 4, 1776, when the members of the Continental Congress voted to approve and ratify the Declaration. The emotional stress had to be both exhausting and exhilarating.

Thomas Jefferson wrote afterward about the July 4 ratification: “The debate seemed as though it would run on interminably. The weather was oppressively warm and … the horse flies swarmed thick and fierce, alighting on the legs of the members and biting hard through their thin silk stockings. Handkerchiefs in hand, they lashed at the hungry pests to no avail.”

After they voted, you can just imagine what coursed through the chambers — jubilation, apprehension and fear. John Hancock: “We must be unanimous. There must be no pulling different ways; we must all hang together.” Benjamin Franklin: “Yes, we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

The actual signing of the Declaration did not occur until Aug. 2. That’s when 55 members of the Continental Congress added their names below that of Hancock’s.

And at that moment, they continued to know the gravity and risk of what they were doing. Indeed, for fear of expected reprisals, the names of the 56 Signers and their families were not made public for six months.

Most of the Signers, according to historians, felt as Rhode Island’s Stephen Hopkins did. At 69, Hopkins was the second-oldest signer behind Franklin. After signing the Declaration, as he handed the quill to his fellow Rhode Islander, William Ellery, Hopkins said: “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.” Hopkins suffered from palsy.

And then there was John Morton of Pennsylvania. Morton’s district opposed independence. But he followed his conscience and courage. He became the third and crucial vote that put Pennsylvania in favor of independence. 

Many of Morton’s relatives, neighbors and friends turned against him. In his last hours, Morton said: “… tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service I ever rendered my country.” 

Morton was the first of the 56 Signers to die, April 1, 1777.

Few of us today know anything about most of the 56 Signers. We know Hancock, Franklin, Jefferson and John Adams. But who else? 

To be sure, every Signer has a remarkable life story. The ones cited here are just few. But hopefully, they will spur you to appreciation and gratefulness for all that we have and help you think on July 4: It is indeed a Glorious Day. 

Be proud and grateful. Happy Fourth of July.

Keep the torch of liberty burning.