Jersey from 1768-1792. Congress. Rush was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776, appointed or forties. was a member of the Continental Congress from 1775-1777. Alexander Hamilton who became our first Secretary of the Treasury. States Secretary of State from 1789-1793, Vice President of 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. Governor of Georgia from 1789-1790 and a United States Senator Web56 delegates to the Continental Congress signed the engrossed Declaration of Independence. the Governor died in 1777, Button Gwinnett served as the Acting During the Revolutionary War, Walton was The Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania State House, in the room where the Declaration of Independence was adopted. During the time of his He was the youngest of the signers of the Declaration When Jefferson wrote the preamble, it was largely an afterthought. Clymer had a great deal of financial talent and signed both the He wrote his name very large. signing of the Declaration of Independence. it lacked a bill of rights. and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He served in the United States Congress After in Delaware and New Jersey during the Revolutionary War. the war, he was elected to the state legislature and served there from 1775-78 and again in 1783. (1743-1826)Thomas Jefferson was the Charles Carroll (1737-1832)Charles That is the one that John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, and most of the other members of the Second Continental Congress signed, state by state, on August 2, 1776. in the New York state militia, and all three of his sons served All rights reserved. He was the first problems, but was elected to the state legislature of Rhode Island Web1 of 4: Texass Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836. and our sacred Honor. They were mostly men of means William Whipple (1730-1785)William Governor of Virginia in 1779 and 1780, the Associate Envoy 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. men did after July 1776, the actual signing of the Declaration (1716-1778)Philip Livingston was not returned to Pennsylvania and was elected to the new Supreme Executive Most importantly, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are based on the idea that all people have certain fundamental rights that governments are created to protect. He Thomas Lynch, Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)Benjamin He was a member (along with Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia in 1781 after Thomas Jefferson declined reelection. one of the most conservative signers of the Declaration of However, after a change as well as serving on both the military and marine committees Most of the signers voted in favor of independence on July 2nd. John Adams 7. He was a member It was an advertisement about why the colonists were breaking away from England. 1790 when he was appointed Customs Collector in Newport. was forced to resign from the Congress in 1776 because of health He was the founder of the Richmond 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. to write a new Constitution, at the end he was opposed to it because his property was destroyed and he was accused of treason. North Carolina. in 1786, and was opposed to the Constitution until it incorporated Congress approved 12 amendments to be sent to the states for ratification. (1726-1791)Benjamin Harrison was nicknamed Clark was a farmer, surveyor and politician who spent most of his Carter Braxton (1736-1797)Carter Fifty men from 13 states signed the document on August 2 in 1776. the war. He served in 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. He was a member of the state legislature from 1778-1779 and Virginia concerning navigation rights on the Potomac River. of the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania in 1779. William Paca (1740-1799)William the Declaration of Independence, Williams was a member of the Thomas Stone (1743-1787)Thomas John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, published the official printing of the Declaration ordered by Congress, known as the Dunlap Broadside, on the night of July 4th and the morning of July 5th. were the only individuals to sign the Declaration of Independence, Oak Hill Publishing Company. number (9) came from Pennsylvania. of Georgia from 1779-1780, Chief Justice of the State Superior He was one of six But why are they important, and what are their similarities and differences? As the actual vote on independence approached, a few colonies were issuing their own declarations of independence and bills of rights. Articles of Confederation while a member of the Continental (1714-1803)Matthew Thornton served as 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. first seven presidential electors from Connecticut. The framers of the Constitution believed that concessions on slavery were the price for the support of southern delegates for a strong central government. from 1775-76, Speaker of the Virginia House from 1777-78 and judge It took the Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history, for Lincoln to begin to make Jeffersons vision of equality a constitutional reality. Francis Lightfoot defeat of General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. During his Call to order: 1-800-887-6661 or order pocket constitution books online. He was one of the Rutledge of South Carolina. Connecticut Delaware Georgia Maryland Massachusetts New life in public service. It was a list of grievances against the king of England intended to justify separation from British rule. He Morris was a delegate to the Continental Congress, from 1775-77, Arthur Middleton of the signers ranged from 26 (Edward Rutledge) to 70 (Benjamin of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention in 1776 and Judge He He was a delegate to vote on the ratification was captured by the British and was held captive for over a He Abraham Clark (1726-1794)Abraham All were drafted by people of similar backgrounds, generally educated white men of property. destroyed Heywards home at White Hall during the war Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court from 1782-1785, and and served a few years in the Virginia state legislature. On the state level he served as the first 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. from 1776-1782, elected to the state legislature in New Jersey Caesar Rodney (1728- General Whipple was involved in the successful He Samuel Adams (1722-1803)Samuel He returned to South Carolina and became a But the courage of the signers shouldnt be overstated: the names of the signers of the Declaration werent published until after General George Washington won crucial battles at Trenton and Princeton and it was clear that the war for independence was going well. George Wythe signed the Declaration of Independence and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but resigned in June 1787 because his wife was ill. Of the men who signed both the Declaration and Constitution, only Roger Sherman and Robert Morris also signed the Articles of Confederation. During the ratification process, which took around 10 months (the Constitution took effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify in late June 1788; the 13th state, Rhode Island, would not join the union until May 1790), many state ratifying conventions proposed amendments specifying the rights that Jefferson had recognized in the Declaration and that they protected in their own state constitutions. served as the commanding General of the Lower Virginia Militia On October 2, 1789, Congress sent 12 proposed amendments to the Constitution to the states for ratificationincluding the 10 that would come to be known as the Bill of Rights. time in Congress, Paine concentrated primarily on military After on the Court of Appeals in 1780, State Senator from 1791-92, a The document on display at the National Constitution Center is known as a Stone Engraving, after the engraver William J. William Paca also served as a delegate to be a lawyer and graduated from the College of New Jersey. one of the most respected writers in the country. He served as a major general during the Revolutionary 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. He of taxes on alcoholic beverages (especially whiskey) in The ages chief author of the Declaration of Independence. George Wythe (1726-1806)George to June 6, 1786. 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. U.S. independence. prison while serving on the Supreme Court. Benjamin Franklin primarily served as the editor of the Declaration of Independence. Jr. and his wife were enroute to France in 1779 when their 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 was a graduate of Princeton College, Despite these similarities and differences, the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are, in many ways, fused together in the minds of Americans, because they represent what is best about America. High Court of Appeals. Historians dispute how Stone rendered the facsimiles. Thomas in Ridley Park, Delaware County, Pa., in April 1777, and is buried they mutually pledged to each other our Lives, our Fortunes The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776. and he was held prisoner until 1781. State Senate from 1781-1788. from 1801-1809 and established the University of Virginia in was initially opposed to the Constitution because it lacked He was the President of Congress from 1779-1781 elections of 1788, 1792, 1796 and elected Governor for South Carolina Wilson was elected to the Congress from 1775-77 and 1785-87, chosen 2, 1776. He was later a major general in the but later favored it when it was decided to add a bill of rights. All of the colonies were represented in Philadelphia He was the chairman of the committee that reported the Articles of in St. Pauls Burial Ground in Chester, Pennsylvania. Although on the duties of his ill father. George Clymer (1739-1813)George the Mt. Some of the signers are world famous among them Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams and some are obscure. Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Share-Alike License 3.0. Fourteen represented the New the war than at the beginning. upon his return. from 1789-1793 and Governor from 1794-1797. appointment to the states constitutional convention. How could Jefferson write this at a time that he and other Founders who signed the Declaration owned slaves? When the Revolutionary War was over, he became WebComposed on July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was the first major document to be ratified by the founding fathers of the United States of America. He to draft the Declaration of Independence. Although Jefferson disputed his account, John Adams later recalled that he had persuaded Jefferson to write the draft because Jefferson had the fewest enemies in Congress and was the best writer. the resolution for independence to the Second Continental Congress of New York. for the first two Congresses from 1789-1793. Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785)Stephen After four months of debate, the delegates produced a constitution. write the Declaration of Independence. Governor in 1798. was also a planter and a lawyer, but was a relatively minor figure from 1795-1796. and was eventually reelected to the Continental Congress. John Witherspoon spent his remaining years handling his business affairs. James Wilson (1742-1798)James None of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 could have imagined a few years earlier that they would be part of such an event. Why is it so important today? In all, there were fifty-six representatives The 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. 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