Meet The Signers----William Whipple

Representing New Hampshire at the Continental Congress

Born: January 14, 1730
Birthplace: Kittery, Maine
Died: November 28, 1785

William Whipple was born at Kittery Maine, in 1730. He was educated at a common school until his early teens, when he went off to sea to find his fortune. He was an able seaman, earning the position of Ship's Master by the age of 21. He worked hard and amassed a great deal of money. In 1759 he landed in Portsmouth and, in partnership with his brother, established himself as a merchant. Calls to public duty began almost immediately. He was elected to several local offices and was involved in the Patriot movement.

In 1775 he was elected to represent his town at the provincial congress. The following year New Hampshire dissolved the Royal government and reorganized with a House of Representatives and an Executive Council. Whipple was made a Council member, a member of the Committee of Safety, and was promptly elected to the Continental Congress. He served there through 1779, though he took much leave for military affairs. In 1777 he was made Brigadier General of the New Hampshire Militia. General Whipple lead men in the successful expedition against General Burgoyne at the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga.

After the war Whipple was appointed an associate justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire. He suffered from a heart ailment for several years and he died, fainting from atop his horse while traveling his court circuit, in November of 1785.

Meet The Signers--Francis Hopkinson

Representing New Jersey at the Continental Congress

Born: September 21, 1737
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: May 9, 1791

Francis Hopkinson was a man of extraordinary talent and charm. Born into a family of substance in Philadelphia, he was the first scholar and first Graduate of the College of Philadelphia, which his father, along with good friend Benjamin Franklin, played a role in chartering. He studied Law in the office of Benjamin Chew (later, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania) and then continued his education in England, two years study with the Bishop of Worcester. He was a writer of music, poetry and satire. His notable works include "A Pretty Story," a skeptical examination of the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies, and "Battle of the Kegs," a satiric taunting of the British. Hopkinson claimed credit for designing the American flag, but the evidence for his claim is not clear. Hopkinson was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776, where he signed the Declaration. After the War he was an active advocate, in speaking and in writing, for the New Federal constitution. He was commissioned a Judge of Admiralty in Pennsylvania in 1780, and Washington appointed him Federal District Judge for his native state in 1790. He died very suddenly of a missive epileptic seizure in 1791, at the still young age of 53.

Declaration of The Thirteen United States of America

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — 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.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Meet The Signers---Edward Rutledge

Delegate to the Continental Congress from South Carolina, 1774-76, 1779

Born: November 23, 1749
Birthplace: Charleston, S.C.
Died: January 23, 1800

Born to an aristocratic Family in South Carolina, Edward Rutledge was perhaps destined to a life of Public service. He was educated in law at Oxford and studied for and was admitted to the English Bar. He and his brother John were both engaged in the law, and both attended the congress. They supported each other unabashedly, both on the floor and in committee. Edward attended Congress at the remarkable age of 27, and was no doubt pretty excited to find himself in the company of the most eminent men of the colonies.

He took leave of Congress in November of 1776 to join the defense of his colony. He was a member of the Charleston Battalion of Artillery, engaged in several important battles, and attained the rank of Captain. The colonial legislature sent him back to Congress in 1779 to fill a vacancy. He took his leave again in 1780 when the British conducted a third invasion of South Carolina. He resumed his post as Captain in the defense of Charleston, was captured and held prisoner until July of 1781.

In 1782 he returned to the legislature of his native state, where he served until 1796. He was a very active member, intent on the prosecution of British Loyalists. At times he served on as many nineteen committees. He also served as an elector, in 1788, 1792, and in 1796 when, despite his avowed allegiance to the Federalist party, he voted for Thomas Jefferson. He was then elected to the state Senate, twice, and in 1789 was elected Governor. This would be his last office. His health declining, he was barely able to complete his term as Governor. He died in January of 1800 at the age of 50.

Meet The Signers--Roger Sherman

Representing Connecticut at the Continental Congress

Born: April 19, 1721
Birthplace: Newton, Mass.
Died: July 23, 1793

Roger Sherman was born at Newton, near Boston, on April 19, 1721. When he was two his father took the family to what was then a frontier town, Stoughton. His education was very limited. He had access to his fathers library, a good one by the standards of the day, and when Roger was about thirteen years old the town built a "grammar school" which he attended for a time. Stoughton was also fortunate to have a parish Minister by the name of Rev. Samuel Danbar, who was trained at Harvard. Danbar helped young Roger acquire some facility with mathematics, sciences, literature, and philosophy.

His first experience with an official office came in 1743 when he was appointed surveyor of New Haven County. A few years later he was commissioned by neighbor to consult a lawyer at the county seat regarding a petition before the court. The lawyer asked if he could examine Sherman's notes and reading them, urged Sherman to set up for the practice of law. At age twenty one he engaged in both civic and religious affairs in New Milford Connecticut, where he and his brother also opened the towns first store. He served as the town clerk there and was also chosen to lobby on behalf of the town at the provincial assembly. Since New Milford did not have a newspaper and reading material was hard to come by, Sherman wrote and published a very popular Almanac each year from 1750 to 1761.

Sherman was accepted to the Bar of Litchfield in 1754, and to represent New Milford in the General Assembly the following year. He was appointed justice of the peace, and four years later justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut. By the age of 40, he had become a very successful landowner and businessman while integrating himself into the social and political fabric of New England. He was appointed commissary to the Connecticut Troops at the start of the Revolutionary war; this was experience that he put to great use when he was elected to the Continental Congress in 1774. Sherman was a very active and much respected Delegate to the congress. He served and numerous committees, including the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. He served all through the war for Independence. As active as he was in Congress, he simultaneously fulfilled his other offices. In 1776 these efforts began to take their toll on his health. Thus, he appealed to then governor Trumbull to relieve him of some of his state duties while he remained on in Congress through 1781. He left the office in 1781, then returned in 1783 and 84, where he served on the committee forming the Articles of Confederation. His interests in the strength of the federation carried him to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he was one of the most vocal and persistent members. Madison's notes on the convention credit him with one hundred and thirty-eight speeches to the convention. His tiny state of Connecticut was in a precarious position, and Sherman, then sixty-one apparently spared no effort in defending the rights of the smaller states.

Many of the most notable figures of the revolution, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, admitted a deep admiration for Roger Sherman and his work. From their notes Sherman appears as a picture of New England pragmatism: stern, taciturn, spare with his words and very direct in his speech, but never hesitating to stand-and stand again-for his principles. In July of 1793, Roger Sherman died of typhoid at the age of 72. At the time he served as US Senator from Connecticut under the new constitution that he had helped to build; in the new nation, that he had spent most of his life defending and defining.

Meet The Signers--Joseph Hewes

Representing North Carolina at the Continental Congress

Born: January 23, 1730
Birthplace: Princeton, New Jersey
Died: November 10, 1779

Joseph Hewes was born in Princeton, New Jersey and attended Princeton College. He established a shipping business in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1760 and, by the time of the revolution, had amassed a fortune. He elected to the Provincial Assembly in 1766 and served there until it was dissolved by the royal governor in 1775. He was appointed to the Committee of Correspondence, elected to the Provincial Legislature, and sent along to the Continental Congress in 1775. Hewes was known as a tireless worker in committee and the leading expert on maritime concerns. In 1776 he signed the Declaration of Independence and placed his ships at the service of the Continental Armed Forces. He served the Congress as the Secretary of the Naval Affairs Committee until 1779, when he fell ill. He died at age 50.

Meet The Signers--Lyman Hall

Representing Georgia at the Continental Congress

Born: April 12, 1724
Birthplace: Wallingford, Conn.
Died: October 19, 1790

Lyman Hall was born in Connecticut in 1724. He studied medicine at Yale College, graduated in 1756 and went to Charleston, South Carolina, shortly after to establish a medical practice. He bought land in Georgia in 1760 and established a plantation there, while continuing to practice medicine. Two years later he returned to South Carolina, still as a physician. In 1774, by this time partisan in revolutionary politics, he again came to Georgia and earned the unflattering attention of the Royal Governor, James Wright. He also secured election to the Continental Congress, where he was involved in provisioning food and medicine for the Revolutionary Armies. He was reelected to congress through 1780 but retired to his adopted state in 1777 when state matters, including the situation of his longtime friend Button Gwinnett, demanded his attention. A short time later, the war reached Savannah. Hall's property was burned and he stood accused of high treason. He fled to Charleston, which was also overtaken by the British. He then fled to Connecticut, some say, where he was harbored by family.

He returned to Georgia in 1782, to reclaim his lands, was elected to the House of Assembly in 1783 and then elevated to the office of the Governor. After a single year as Governor, he served one more year in the Assembly, then a year as judge. He then returned to private life and was involved in the continued development of agriculture in the state. Hall died in 1790 at the age of 66.

(I apologizes for the mention of Button Gwinnett, when I said that I forgot that he had an argument with another signer and thus had at least one signer who backed him up and they had to talk about it.)