Biography and Autobiography

Fifty-Six on July 4

232 years ago, the Proclamation of Independence was voted on and ratified. It was then ordered to the printer, and simply under a month later, on August 2 most of the signatures were affixed. When the Statement of Independence was delivered to the King of England, it had fifty-six signatures.

Each signatory was, for what they knew, signing a approval for his own death. In the face of tyranny, however, they embodied the words of Patrick Henry: “Give me Exercise boldness, or give me Death.”

Take a few minutes today to read about some of those fifty-six men. Sincerely, we owe them the willingness to continue in the path that they forged for unconstrained.

“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are advantage defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a proper inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and risk and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with nurse and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of egregiousness on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by physical force without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and calculating men.” - Samuel Adams

“Nip the shoots of uncertain power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.” - John Adams

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusettes: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Freebie behaviour towards Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Eyot: 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 Get moving,...

Read more...