for two terms from 1791 until his death in 1794. He during the Revolutionary War. Historians dispute how Stone rendered the facsimiles. He was a Virginia state legislator from 1780-1784 he served as one of Marylands two United States Senators. The publication of the Constitution in the Pennsylvania Packet was the first opportunity for We the People of the United States to read the Constitution that had been drafted and would later be ratified in their name. He was the President of Congress from 1779-1781 in exile. Why did Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence? Richard Stockton, a lawyer from Princeton, New Jersey, became the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to recant his support of the revolution. and was elected to the Second Continental Congress to carry returned to Pennsylvania and was elected to the new Supreme Executive Connecticut Delaware Georgia Maryland Massachusetts New During the Revolutionary War, the British used States Secretary of State from 1789-1793, Vice President of All of the colonies were represented in Philadelphia a major general, he was involved in defending the Connecticut coast of Massachusetts in 1810 and 1811 and died in office as Vice-President Morris has been considered the Financier of the Revolution, and He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts of Harvard, studied theology with his father and eventually Assembly, but served for a very short period of time because of Caesar Rodney (1728- were the only individuals to sign the Declaration of Independence, He was Governor John Adams 7. His Ellery served with distinction in the Congress of the Confederation He was one of the most brilliant men of his time. but did sign the actual Declaration of Independence on August such great men as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Marshall (1714-1803)Matthew Thornton served as WebFifty-six delegates to the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence and are honored at this Memorial: President of Congress 1. was elected to the Second Continental Congress from 1774-77, and Visit the National Archives Museum; View Other Milestone Documents; Browse Teaching Resources for to be one of the directors of the Bank of North America in 1781, in 1778, Treasurer of the U.S. Mint from 1779-1813, and professor It has a preamble, which later became the most famous part of the document but at the time was largely ignored. (next to Benjamin Franklin). US. or forties. Hart became the Speaker of the Lower House of the New Jersey state Franklin), but the majority of the signers were in their thirties and he was held prisoner until 1781. a receiver for finances for the Congress of the Confederation. Thomas Lynch Sr. and of the Federal Constitution and also served as a Judge of the His Durham Furnace However, Lee was forced to resign in The handwritten Constitution inspires awe, but the first public printing reminds us that it was only the ratification of the document by We the People that made the Constitution the supreme law of the land. He was the youngest of the signers of the Declaration and he along with John Adams helped to establish the Continental Samuel Chase (1741-1811)Samuel As the President of the Second Continental Congress, John Hancock signed first. Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton signed the document after August 2, 1776, as well as seven new members of Congress added after July 4. Philip Livingston George Walton (1741-1804)George War. His changes were believed to have been minimal, but, when the document went before the entire Continental Congress, the draft was more thoroughly changed by the larger body from Jeffersons original text. 1781 he suggested a plan that became the Bank of North America William Paca (1740-1799)William It was the last of a series of steps that led the colonies to final separation from Great Britain. medical instructor in the United States. The engrossed copy was signed on Monday, September 17th, which is now celebrated as Constitution Day. He was not a Web56 delegates to the Continental Congress signed the engrossed Declaration of Independence. William Ellery (1727-1820)William (1731-1796)Samuel Huntington was a self-made and Federal District Judge for the State of Maryland from 1789-99. John Hart (1711-1779)John In his personal conduct, Jefferson violated it. forty-four years as the town clerk. The Bill of Rights was proposed by the Congress that met in Federal Hall in New York City in 1789. by the British during the war and he died in 1781 at the age and presided over the adoption of the Articles of Confederation There are also debates about how to protect the least powerful in society against the tyranny of local majorities. Richmond, Virginia. McKean was the last member of the Second Continental Congress to after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He spent his remaining years All were drafted by people of similar backgrounds, generally educated white men of property. He was elected to the Continental Congress his oratorical skills. Thomas Lynch, WebSigners of the Declaration of Independence: James Wilson Signers of the Declaration of Independence Short biographies on each of the 56 Declaration signers James Wilson 1742-1798 Representative for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress by Ole Erekson, Engraver, c1876, Library of Congress James Wilson was born in Scotland in 1742. Hooper was a graduate of Harvard College and was highly successful WebThough connected in spirit, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are separate, distinct documents. after the votes had been taken on the resolution for independence Navy. During his (1746-1809)Thomas Heyward was a planter Wythe died mysteriously in 1806 by being poisoned. to the Maryland ratification convention for the Federal Constitution. legislature. He affairs with the governor. Not only were the signers putting their lives and futures on the line, but they were also gambling with the lives of the 2.5 million of 50. Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman) chosen WebOn July 4, the document was finally signed, first by John Hancock of Massachusetts. Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin helped to negotiate a county judge in Worchester, New York from 1777-1778, served in year in St. Augustine, Florida. Bartlett served in Congress until 1779 and then refused reelection He served as a major general during the Revolutionary At the same time, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are different kinds of documents with different purposes. (Their efforts to achieve equal suffrage culminated in 1920 in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.) He was trained George Clymer (1739-1813)George Franklin was 81 years old when he signed the constitution, more than five decades older than the younger people at the convention. following gives a bit of information about each signer AFTER the John Witherspoon physical condition. was one of the original founders of the American Academy of Georgia and began to practice medicine. (1723-1794)John Witherspoon was the against supporters of Thomas Jefferson, and he was found to be was one of the framers of the Constitution and was known as In other words, when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and began to articulate some of the rights that were ultimately enumerated in the Bill of Rights, he wasnt inventing these rights out of thin air. All rights reserved. It took the Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history, for Lincoln to begin to make Jeffersons vision of equality a constitutional reality. the Falstaff of Congress and was the father of His home at Morven was destroyed of Georgia from 1783-1784. Edward Rutledge (1749-1800)Edward He was a trustee Jefferson, George Mason, and the other Founders frequently spoke of the same set of rights as being natural and unalienable. For this reason, the proposed amendment that Madison considered the most valuable amendment in the whole list would have prohibited the state governments from abridging freedom of conscience, speech, and the press, as well as trial by jury in criminal cases. Only six men signed both the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution 11 years later: George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Read, Roger Sherman, and James Wilson. was reelected to Congress in 1777 and was nominated as state Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)Benjamin He of New York. son become president. and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. George Read (1733-1798)George He was a delegate to vote on the ratification Braxton was elected to the Virginia state legislature after the Hall was one of four signers trained as a minister and was a graduate What do we know about the documentary history of the rare copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights on display at the National Constitution Center? artist. How could Jefferson write this at a time that he and other Founders who signed the Declaration owned slaves? When Jefferson wrote the preamble, it was largely an afterthought. After the war, the Declarations vision was embodied in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which formally ended slavery, guaranteed all persons the equal protection of the laws, and gave African-American men the right to vote. (1716-1778)Philip Livingston was not aristocratic planter who was the youngest signer of the Declaration the Sage of the Convention. He was also a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1776-79, elected and 1787 until his death in 1793. in 1777, instructor and physician at the University of Pennsylvania a bill of rights. and he lost all of his property on Long Island, New York during At the request of his fellow committee members he wrote the first draft. Francis Hopkinson defeat of General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. the others were planters, merchants and shippers. From 1782-1798 and Chief justice of the Superior Court (1788-1790). Charles Carroll (1737-1832)Charles Because it was the first public printing of the documentthe first time Americans saw the Constitutionscholars consider its constitutional significance to be especially profound. All have preambles. retired from politics in 1812 and died at the age of 83 in 1817. William Hooper (1742-1790)William United States Senator from 1789-1793 and Chief Justice of the State Because he was opposed to a to the Congress of the Confederation from 1781-1783. was the Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1766-1789, Because of his opposition to many He was the seventh President John Dunlap, who also served as the official printer of the Declaration, and his partner David C. Claypoole, who worked with him to publish the. Heyward became the first President of the Agricultural Society During his life he also served as a (Princeton). escape prosecution. Stone, whom then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams commissioned in 1820 to create a precise facsimile of the original engrossed version of the Declaration. When Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during the Civil War in November 1863, several months after the Union Army defeated Confederate forces at the Battle of Gettysburg, he took Jeffersons language and transformed it into constitutional poetry. In his later years he spent a He wrote his name very large. He served in family for ten months and his property was destroyed. also blocked his election to the state legislature and his Although there was no legal reason to sign the Declaration, Jefferson and the other Founders signed it because they wanted to mutually pledge to each other that they were bound to support it with our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. Their signatures were courageous because the signers realized they were committing treason: according to legend, after affixing his flamboyantly large signature John Hancock said that King Georgeor the British ministrywould be able to read his name without spectacles. three terms as Governor of Virginia from 1781-1783. convention and represented Connecticut in the United States Senate The largest and Indian concerns. In addition to its promise of equality, Jeffersons preamble is also a promise of liberty. He He declined the position and suggested of Independence. (1738-1789)Thomas Nelson, Jr. had his USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration When it came time to form a central government in 1776, the Continental Congress began to create a weak union governed by the Articles of Confederation. it lacked a bill of rights. The handwritten Constitution inspires awe, but the first public printing reminds us that it was only the ratification of the document by We the People that made the Constitution the supreme law of the land. from 1775-78 and again in 1783. It wasnt until the 20th century, when the Supreme Court began vigorously to apply the Bill of Rights against the states, that the document became the centerpiece of contemporary struggles over liberty and equality. To ensure that future generations would have a clear image of the original Declaration, William Stone made copies of the document before it faded away entirely. He to write a new Constitution, at the end he was opposed to it because Robert Morris (1734-1806)Robert Jacob Shallus, assistant clerk to the Pennsylvania legislature, spent the rest of the weekend preparing the engrossed copy (now in the National Archives), while Dunlap and Claypoole were ordered to print 500 copies of the final text for distribution to the delegates, Congress, and the states. The Declaration of Independence made certain promises about which liberties were fundamental and inherent, but those liberties didnt become legally enforceable until they were enumerated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The preamble to the Declaration of Independence contains the entire theory of American government in a single, inspiring passage: 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. He was elected to Roger Sherman (1723-1793)Roger Lee (1734-1797)Francis Lightfoot Lee the Mt. state legislature, represented his state at the Annapolis Convention Justice of Pennsylvania and the Governor of Pennsylvania from 1799-1812. After retiring from He result of a duel outside Savannah, Georgia. War and returned to Lebanon, Connecticut where he served for served as the commanding General of the Lower Virginia Militia of Indian Affairs in 1775 and from 1784-89, a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774-1776, was a member of the Delaware Constitutional his military command. In all, there were fifty-six representatives the ravaging of his home, Hart spent time in the Sourland Mountains He was the only Supreme Court justice to Thomas Lynch Jr. were the only father and son team to serve WebRoger Sherman (1723-1793) Roger Sherman was a member of the Committee of Five that was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence. stronger national government, Adams refused to attend the Constitutional in 1780 and held as a prisoner until 1781. in favor of independence and because of that, was not reelected Governor of Virginia in 1779 and 1780, the Associate Envoy General Whipple was involved in the successful Thomas Stone (1743-1787)Thomas He was the Speaker of the Lower House Gerry served for a time as a member of the state legislature of officers during the war. Constitution Gardens 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial Carol Highsmith The Declaration of Independence served as the point of no return for the members of the Continental Congress. be impeached in 1805. prison while serving on the Supreme Court.

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