" OUR LIVES,
OUR FORTUNES,
OUR SACRED HONOR"

THE SIGNERS:
I do not know how many of us appreciate the grave risk taken by the signers to The Declaration Of Indedendence. This might be because some of the signers bravely laughed in the face of danger:

While writing his bold and now famous signature, John Hancock, the first to sign, reportedly said: "There! His Majesty can now read my name without his spectacles. And he can double the reward on my head!"

To encourage solidity, Hancock later told the delegates who were preparing to sign the document, that they all hang together. To which Benjamin Franklin supposedly quipped: "We must all hang together, or we most assuredly will hang separately."
© "Our Sacred Honor" written by William Bennett.

In this letter, Benjamin Rush shares another humorous exchange about hanging among the signers but also recalls the "pensive and awful silence" that filled the room as these patriots of '76 signed away their lives.

BENJAMIN RUSH TO JOHN ADAMS, JULY 20, 1811

Dear Old Friend,

The 4th of July has been celebrated in Philadelphia in the manner I expected. The military men ran away with all the glory of the day. Scarcely a word was said of the solicitude and labors and fears and sorrows and sleepless nights of the men who projected, proposed, defended, and subscribed the Declaration of Independence. Do you recollect your memorable speech upon the day on which the vote was taken? Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?

The silence and the gloom of the morning were interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia, who said to Mr. Gerry at the table: "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead." This speech produced a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.
Your friend,
Benjamin
© "Our Sacred Honor" written by William Bennett.

Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were asked to give speeches on July 4, 1826, (The 50th Anniversary Of The Signing) Neither could make it because of ill health.

"On the evening of July 3, 1826, Thomas Jefferson fell into a deep coma. His last discernible words, uttered to the physician and family gathered around the bedside, indicated he was hoping to time his exit in dramatic fashion: "Is it the Fourth?" It was not, but he lingered in a semiconscious condition until shortly after noon on the magic day. That same morning, Adams collapsed in his favorite reading chair. He lapsed into unconsciousness at almost the exact moment Jefferson died. The end came quickly, at about five thirty that afternoon. He awakened for a brief moment, indicating that nothing more should be done to prolong the inevitable, then, with obvious effort, gave a final salute to his old friend with his last words: "Thomas Jefferson survives," or by another account, "Thomas Jefferson still lives." What ever the version he was wrong for the moment but right for all ages."
©"Founding Brothers" written by Joseph Ellis.

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