Happy Birthday, America!
Hope you all enjoy the 4th of July. I remember the one and only year I taught American History. I loved all the research I had to do for that class and I know I learned a lot more than my students. That was the year that I ran across information about what happened to the signers of our Declaration for Independence in the years after their heroic stand. This information moves me every time I read it, and I share it with you in hopes that it may remind us all that freedom always comes with a dear price.
It all began on July 4, 1776 in the city of Philadelphia when a small group of men, suffering under the restraints of a European power 3000 miles away, and acting as the Second Continental Congress, declared their 13 colonies to be free and independent of Great Britain.
Knowing their proclamation would bring difficulties, they committed themselves and their constituents to what they believed was their “unalienable right” — freedom from tyranny.The Revolutionary War resulted from their declaration. It was a time of tremendous hardship for the new nation, but it ushered in a new era for the world. What is sometimes overlooked, as we consider both the results and the sufferings of our founders, is the price that was paid by the signers.
Nearly all the 56 men of the Congress could be described as professional politicians, and 24 were lawyers. Yet, by affixing their signatures to Thomas Jefferson’s historical document, they risked everything. Five were later captured by the British and died after being tortured. Nine were wounded in various confrontations with the enemy, and 12 had their homes set on fire.The British failed to capture Francis Lewis, who represented New York. But after burning his Long Island estate, they took his wife and threw her aboard a prison ship, where she died a few months later.Lewis never recovered from his grief.
Others who found their homes destroyed for signing were Lewis Morris, Arthur Middleton and Richard Stockton. Thomas Nelson, Virginia’s governor during the siege of Yorktown, implored General George Washington to blow up his mansion when he learned that British General Lord Cornwallis had made it his headquarters. Washington complied, but in doing so, destroyed Nelson’s main financial asset. Virginia merchant Carter Braxton owned a fleet of trading vessels when he signed. The Royal Navy tracked down and sank those ships.North Carolina’s Joseph Hewes also lost his merchant fleet in that he donated it to become the core for the new Continental Navy. He died at the age of 50 in 1779. Made wealthy through his import business, Robert Morris was placed in charge of the new nation’s finances, which were in sad shape. To feed and equip Washington’s troops for the crossing of the Delaware River — the psychological turning point of the war — Morris used $10,000 of his own money, thus placing his personal fortune at the country’s disposal. He later died in poverty.
A year after signing, William Whipple of New Hampshire fought alongside Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates at Saratoga. The American victory there brought France into the conflict. Connecticut’s Oliver Wolcott and South Carolina’s Arthur Middleton, Thomas Heyward and Edward Rutledge all saw combat, and the latter three were captured and tortured. George Walton of Georgia was taken captive in battle, but received his release in a prisoner exchange in 1779. Fellow Georgian Button Gwinnett led a failed invasion of British Florida after returning from Philadelphia. Shortly afterward he was shot in a duel by political opponent Lachlan McIntosh. New Jersey’s Richard Stockton was captured in November 1776, and spent years in prison. After his release he died a pauper in Princeton.
The same month that Stockton was captured, British troops devastated the campus of the College of New Jersey. Signer John Witherspoon spent the remainder of the war rebuilding the college before he went blind in 1792.Thomas Lynch of South Carolina and his wife were lost at sea when their ship disappeared during a voyage to the West Indies. Constant British pursuit prevented Delaware’s Caesar Rodney from getting medical treatment for a cancerous growth on his face. It claimed his life in 1784.Thomas Jefferson went on to be elected governor of Virginia, but had to resign and go into hiding because the British hunted him relentlessly.
In the past 233 years since these 56 brave men risked all in the cause of freedom, many others have sacrificed to maintain and extend this wonderful gift. Their faith in freedom as a right granted by the providence of the Almighty to all peoples has been the great heritage of our country. There are still enemies of this precious bestowal, and the threats may be more subtle today.Americans need to be on the alert to guard against them, and to strengthen the things which will make us faithful to the cause of freedom.
