What Were the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Thinking?

Pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor . . .

As this July 4, 2024 comes to a close, it is naturally time to reflect on our nation’s founding.

As those 56 individuals signed the Declaration of Independence telling King George they were fed up with his maltreatment of British citizens, they took a step that they knew may cost them their lives.   Remember the colonists were British citizens, thus the actions of the 56 signers were treasonous.

As they retired the evening of July 4, 1776, what was going through their minds?  We, of course, don’t know for sure but they knew the penalty for treason was hanging.  They knew a war against a well-disciplined army would ensue.  They had no idea what the outcome would be.  They had no idea if enough colonists would be willing to step forward to fight the British.  How would they fund such a war?   They had each pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor and for some it did cost them their lives and fortunes.

From constitution.org:  “Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

Did you know Public Law 95-260 was passed by Congress in 1978 to create a memorial to the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It consists of 56 stone blocks, each with a facsimile of the signer's actual signature, his occupation, and his hometown. It was dedicated on July 4, 1984, exactly 208 years after the Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence.  It is located in the Constitutional Gardens on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

So, what caused these British subjects to want freedom from their king?  They listed 27 grievances against the king in the Declaration of Independence.  They called them “Facts submitted to a candid World”.  Here are a few:

"He has obstructed the administration of justice ..."

"He has made judges dependent on his will alone ..."

"He has erected a multitude of new offices,

and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people ..."

"... He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies ... independent of and superior to the civil power ..."

"He has combined ... to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution ...

"Giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation ... for imposing taxes on us without our consent ..."

"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury ..."

"... Establishing therein an arbitrary government ... introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies ..."

"For ... altering fundamentally the forms of our governments ..."

“Cutting off our trade with all parts of the world”

“Imposing taxes without our consent”

“Plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people.”

"He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us ..."

"In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress ...

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."

The King of Great Britain oversaw the enactment of:

1764 Currency Act,
1764 Sugar Act,
1765 Stamp Act,
1765 Quartering Act,
1766 Declaratory Act,
1767 Townshend Act,
1773 Tea Act,
1774 Boston Port Act,
1774 Justice Act,
1774 Massachusetts Government Act,
1774 Quartering Act,
1774 Quebec Act, and
1775 Proclamation of Rebellion.

Do we have similar grievances today?

As the signers of the Declaration of Independence signed their names and pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, they did so “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence.”

They understood the step they had taken that day 248 years ago posed great danger, but they also understood the outcome was in the hands of the Almighty.   The many miracles that took place during the War for Independence affirmed their faith in God.  A faith that they voiced from the beginning of the battle for independence was the same they held leading up to that day.

We hear a lot about freedom is never free and that is a very true statement.  Have we  become lackluster, assuming our freedoms . . . our republic . . . can operate on its own, without our involvement.  Oh, how very wrong we are, but is it too late??

Have we become too dependent upon government and not upon God?

The Jefferson Memorial has a warning from Jefferson himself:

"God who gave us life gave us liberty.  Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."

Our freedoms, our liberties are truly a gift from God, I pray we do not squander them.