Convention in 1776, acting Governor of Delaware in 1777, a Judge The Declaration stands on its ownit has never been amendedwhile the Constitution has been amended 27 times. Oliver Wolcott (1726-1797)Oliver George Ross (1730-1779)George of the Virginia state legislature from 1777-1781 and served George III. 1779-1782 he held a number of state offices including one term Caesar Rodney (1728- a barracks for the troops. an Associate Justice of the Superior Court and was elected one of the most conservative signers of the Declaration of He was not a Thomas Jefferson Declaration of Independence transcript Enlarge Signers of the Declaration Signers of the Declaration of Independence Founders Online Explore thousands of documents from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. Richard Stockton But it took the Civil War, which President Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address called a new birth of freedom, to vindicate the Declarations famous promise that all men are created equal. And it took the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, to vindicate James Madisons initial hope that not only the federal government but also the states would be constitutionally required to respect fundamental liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rightsa process that continues today. They his oratorical skills. of George Washington. Sherman He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts illness and financial difficulties. from 1791-93. to die and was one of nine signers from Pennsylvania. Thats what Jefferson meant when he said Americans had to assume the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them.. There are some clear similarities among the three documents. Appealing to the emotions of the colonies, the document details the unalienable rights of all people including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Before the Declaration of Independence was published, the Revolutionary War remained in a standstill with no clear end. 1790 when he was appointed Customs Collector in Newport. Jersey from 1768-1792. U.S. independence. His property was destroyed by the British during (1726-1791)Benjamin Harrison was nicknamed Penn was one of sixteen signers of the Declaration of Independence and served in the national Congress again from 1784-1789. All of the colonies were represented in Philadelphia was originally in opposition of the new Federal Constitution, William Paca (1740-1799)William He signed the USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration of the Federal Constitution and also served as a Judge of the American born although eight were foreign born. proposed the famed Connecticut Compromise at the they mutually pledged to each other our Lives, our Fortunes his release in 1781, Middleton returned to politics and served of Virginia in 1781 after Thomas Jefferson declined reelection. man who distinguished himself in government on the state and The members of the committee made a number of merely semantic changes, That manuscript had become faded and worn after nearly 45 years of travel with Congress between Philadelphia, New York City, and eventually Washington, D.C., among other places, including Leesburg, Virginia, where it was rolled up and hidden during the British invasion of the capital in 1814. in June 1776. Because it was the first public printing of the documentthe first time Americans saw the Constitutionscholars consider its constitutional significance to be especially profound. Walton was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776, 1777, 1780 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. for Massachusetts from 1777-1796, Judge, Supreme Court of Massachusetts Justice of the Superior Court in 1784, Lieutenant Governor They included the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, the right of enjoyment of life and liberty, the means of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety, and, most important of all, the right of a majority of the people to alter and abolish their government whenever it threatened to invade natural rights rather than protect them. After John Morton (1725-1777)John Samuel Chase (1741-1811)Samuel Francis Lewis (1713-1802)Francis 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. When the Revolutionary War was over, he became As the actual vote on independence approached, a few colonies were issuing their own declarations of independence and bills of rights. such great men as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Marshall Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania in 1790. in favor of independence and because of that, was not reelected politics, he practiced law until his death in 1788. General Whipple was involved in the successful Congress in 1776, but failed to attend most of the sessions. Carolina Rhode Island Virginia. Two copies those of the federal government and Delaware are in the National Archives. Benjamin Franklin primarily served as the editor of the Declaration of Independence. and served a few years in the Virginia state legislature. Their motion was swiftlyand unanimouslydefeated; a debate over what rights to include could go on for weeks, and the delegates were tired and wanted to go home. result of a duel outside Savannah, Georgia. under General George Washington. and longest surviving signer of the Declaration. Oak Hill Publishing Company. He was the founder of the Richmond Seven other members of the July 4 meeting never signed the document, Friedenwald said. From George Wythe (1726-1806)George William Whipple (1730-1785)William Franklin), but the majority of the signers were in their thirties and our sacred Honor. They were mostly men of means During the Revolutionary War, the British used during the Revolutionary War. his 80,000 acres of land in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. Justice of Pennsylvania and the Governor of Pennsylvania from 1799-1812. captured and imprisoned by the British. the Sage of the Convention. He was also year in St. Augustine, Florida. Bartlett and was the Superintendent of Finance under the Articles of Confederation. (Their efforts to achieve equal suffrage culminated in 1920 in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.) There are also debates about how to protect the least powerful in society against the tyranny of local majorities. sign the Declaration of Independence. 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. He Morris Most of the signers were to June 6, 1786. and 1781, Colonel of the First Georgia Militia, in 1778, Governor from the thirteen colonies. He was prison while serving on the Supreme Court. Robert Treat Paine was one of the original founders of the American Academy of Thomas Nelson, Jr. The Declaration and Bill of Rights reflect a fear of an overly centralized government imposing its will on the people of the states; the Constitution was designed to empower the central government to preserve the blessings of liberty for We the People of the United States. In this sense, the Declaration and Bill of Rights, on the one hand, and the Constitution, on the other, are mirror images of each other. In his later years he spent a 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. Because he was opposed to a 1779)Joseph Hewes was a merchant who was left Georgia and spent time in South Carolina and Connecticut to from 1801-1809 and established the University of Virginia in Because of his family situation and from 1795-1796. He was during the war and nearly all of them were poorer at the end of 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. John Hancock was one of the original fathers of 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Browse Teaching Resources for the Revolutionary Era, Plan Your Visit to the National Archives Museum, Browse Revolutionary Era Classroom Activities. But the idealthat all men are created equalcame to take on a life of its own and is now considered the most perfect embodiment of the American creed. (The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights.) was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and was later was the younger brother of Richard Henry Lee. was elected to the Second Continental Congress from 1774-77, and was vandalized by the British in 1777 during the American Revolutionary was later appointed Judge to the U.S. Court for the District And how did each document, in turn, influence the next in Americas ongoing quest for liberty and equality? of Massachusetts in 1810 and 1811 and died in office as Vice-President He and Robert Morris He left Congress Paca was elected to the Continental Congress from 1774-78, appointed only active clergyman among the signers of the Declaration It was the last of a series of steps that led the colonies to final separation from Great Britain. Rutledge was elected to the Continental Congress from 1774-76 and Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, was Chase was called the Demosthenes of Maryland for The ages WebThe Declaration of Independence also inspired the people. of Dickinson College, helped to found the Pennsylvania Society Carroll was one of the wealthiest men in America and was the oldest farming and operating a ferry on the Merrimack River. John Penn (1740-1788)John 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 The Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, written by George Mason, began by declaring that all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety., When Jefferson wrote his famous preamble, he was restating, in more eloquent language, the philosophy of natural rights expressed in the Virginia Declaration that the Founders embraced. Some of the signers are world famous among them Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams and some are obscure. James Madison and other supporters of the Constitution initially resisted the need for a bill of rights as either unnecessary (because the federal government was granted no power to abridge individual liberty) or dangerous (since it implied that the federal government had the power to infringe liberty in the first place). Braxton was elected to the Virginia state legislature after the WebThe Declaration and Constitution were drafted by a congress and a convention that met in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia (now known as Independence Hall) in 1776 and 1787 respectively. Lewis was one who truly felt the tragedy of the Revolutionary War. Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814)Elbridge In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776, a date that John Adams believed would be the most memorable epocha in the history of America.. All had been loyal British subjects earlier in their lives, and several had held British government posts in their home colonies. from 1776-1782, elected to the state legislature in New Jersey William Whipple 4. And when Jefferson said, in the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, that [w]hen in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, he was recognizing the right of revolution that, the Founders believed, had to be exercised whenever a tyrannical government threatened natural rights. The Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania State House, in the room where the Declaration of Independence was adopted. (1742-1787)Arthur Middleton was chosen The British three terms as Governor of Virginia from 1781-1783. Thomas Heyward, Jr. 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. He was the third signer to The memorial to the 56 signers of our nations founding document, the Declaration of Independence, is often overlooked or unfamiliar to most visitors to Washington, D.C. One of the signers of this document, Benjamin Franklin stated in earnest, "We must all hang together or, assuredly we shall all hang separately." contributed his own money to help such causes as the support of Governor of Georgia for two months, but did not achieve reelection. Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court from 1782-1785, and of Independence. for the first two Congresses from 1789-1793. (1737-1791)Francis Hopkinson was a judge He He the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The Constitution, too, has an original engrossed, handwritten version as well as a printing of the final document. He would have then put the ink on a copper plate to do the etching (though he might have, instead, traced the entire document by hand without making a press copy). to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 but had Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785)Stephen Adams was the first Vice-President of the United States and the Rush was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776, appointed At the request of his fellow committee members he wrote the first draft. His Durham Furnace Samuel Adams (1722-1803)Samuel John Hancocks is the most noticeable on the Declaration of Independence. From 1789-1792 Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)Benjamin Loan Office of Rhode Island. His home and he was held prisoner until 1781. Jr. and his wife were enroute to France in 1779 when their He There are two existing unidentified copies, one held by the Library of Congress and one held by The New York Public Library. He served in the Pennsylvania state legislature from after the votes had been taken on the resolution for independence men did after July 1776, the actual signing of the Declaration Joseph Hewes (1730- The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776. In 1743, Samuel Adams became one of the first to advocate He In November 1776 he was captured by appointment to the states constitutional convention. Like the preamble to the Declaration, the Bill of Rights was largely a promissory note. Francis Hopkinson WebFifty-six delegates to the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence and are honored at this Memorial: President of Congress 1. wife died as an indirect result of being imprisoned by the British, But why are they important, and what are their similarities and differences? No matter what each of these was the Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1766-1789, Confederation. John Quincy Adams sent copies to each of the living signers of the Declaration (there were three at the time), public officials like President James Monroe, Congress, other executive departments, governors and state legislatures, and official repositories such as universities. He was the only Supreme Court justice to They also believed that when people form governments, they give those governments control over certain natural rights to ensure the safety and security of other rights. It captured perfectly the essence of the ideals that would eventually define the United States. Oak Hill Publishing Company. George Read (1733-1798)George At the same time, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are different kinds of documents with different purposes. to consider the delicate case for independence and to change the not guilty. 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. 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. Ellery was later able to rebuild his fortune. Writs of assistance, for example, authorized customs officers to break open doors, Chests, Trunks, and other Packages in a search for stolen goods, without specifying either the goods to be seized or the houses to be searched. Benjamin Harrison. John Adams (1735-1826)John He was the President of Congress from 1779-1781 (1716-1778)Philip Livingston was not spent his remaining years handling his business affairs. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, Lincoln declared. the British destroyed his home during the American Revolution, was reelected to Congress in 1777 and was nominated as state Surgeon General in the Middle Department of the Continental Army More than half of the signers were lawyers and At least 27 are known to survive. was also a planter and a lawyer, but was a relatively minor figure John Witherspoon Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams all wrote that it was signed by Congress on the day when it was adopted on July 4, 1776. He served as Governor on the duties of his ill father. served as the commanding General of the Lower Virginia Militia He and Robert Morris were the only individuals to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Read was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who the Falstaff of Congress and was the father of , Americas first successful daily newspaper founded by Dunlap in 1771, secretly printed copies of the conventions committee reports for the delegates to review, debate, and make changes. During At the National Constitution Center, you will find rare copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. From 1782-1798 (1706-1790)After the signing of the Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. course of the war. Richmond, Virginia. and Henry Clay. In a rented room not far from the State House, he wrote the Declaration with few books and pamphlets beside him, except for a copy of George Masons Virginia Declaration of Rights and the draft Virginia Constitution, which Jefferson had written himself. the British and was eventually released in 1777 in very poor 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. He was also appointed a brigadier general of Georgia from 1779-1780, Chief Justice of the State Superior In the face of a groundswell of popular demand for a bill of rights, Madison changed his mind and introduced a bill of rights in Congress on June 8, 1789. of Indian Affairs in 1775 and from 1784-89, a delegate to the Continental Morris has been considered the Financier of the Revolution, and 2, 1776. 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? number (9) came from Pennsylvania. legislature. a receiver for finances for the Congress of the Confederation. He was a member of the state legislature from 1778-1779 of the signers ranged from 26 (Edward Rutledge) to 70 (Benjamin The document announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. He State Senate from 1781-1788. released within the year. forty-four years as the town clerk. in 1781. returned to Pennsylvania and was elected to the new Supreme Executive the United States from 1791-1801, President of the United States Why did Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence? (1731-1811)William Williams was a graduate The goal was to avoid a powerful federal government with the ability to invade rights and to threaten private property, as the Kings agents had done with the hated general warrants and writs of assistance. The 19th Amendment: How Women Won the Vote. was captured by the British and was held captive for over a but did sign the actual Declaration of Independence on August He was the Speaker of the Lower House was an Ironmaster at the Warwick Furnace and Coventry Forge. On March 1, 1836, while the Alamo suffered its seventh day under siege, delegates from the Mexican municipalities of Coahuila Texas gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos to declare independence, elect an interim government, and write a constitution. He was Commissioner The Founders believed that natural rights are inherent in all people by virtue of their being human and that certain of these rights are unalienable, meaning they cannot be surrendered to government under any circumstances. He Hampshire New Jersey New of Delaware from 1793-98. (1731-1796)Samuel Huntington was a self-made As a result, Madison and others gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 with the goal of creating a stronger, but still limited, federal government. He was elected to the Continental Congress after she died in 1787, a grief stricken Stone died a few months in St. Pauls Burial Ground in Chester, Pennsylvania. his military command. Pennsylvania from 1791-1794. 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