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THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCETHE SIGNERSGary HildrithHave you ever wondered what happened to the fifty-six men whosigned the Declaration of Independence? This is the price they paid:Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured beforethey died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two losttheir sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured.Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships resultingfrom the Revolutionary War.These men signed, and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and theirsacred honor!What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers and large plantationowners. All were men of means, well educated. But they signed theDeclaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty could bedeath if they were captured.Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his shipsswept from the seas by the British navy. He sold his home andproperties to pay his debts, and died in rags.Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced tomove his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress withoutpay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were takenfrom him, and poverty was his reward.Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall,Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.Perhaps one of the most inspiring examples of "undaunted resolution"was at the Battle of Yorktown. Thomas Nelson, Jr. was returning fromPhiladelphia to become Governor of Virginia and joined GeneralWashington just outside of Yorktown. He then noted that BritishGeneral Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headqurt,but that the patriot's were directing their artillery fire all over the townexcept for the vicinity of his own beautiful home. Nelson asked whythey were not firing in that direction, and the soldiers replied, "Out ofrespect to you, Sir." Nelson quietly urged General Washington to openfire, and stepping forward to the nearest cannon, aimed at his ownhouse and fired. The other guns joined in, and the Nelson home wasdestroyed. Nelson died bankrupt.Francis Lewis's Long Island home was looted and gutted, his home andproperties destroyed. His wife was thrown into a damp dark prison cellwithout a bed. Health ruined, Mrs. Lewis soon died from the effects ofthe confinement. The Lewis's son would later die in British captivity,also."Honest John" Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she lay dying,when British and Hessian troops invaded New Jersey just months afterhe signed the Declaration. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. Hisfields and his grist mill were laid to waste. All winter, and for more thana year, Hart lived in forests and caves, finally returning home to find hiswife dead, his chidrvanished and his farm destroyed. Rebuilding provedtoo be too great a task. A few weeks later, by the spring of 1779, JohnHart was dead from exhaustion and a broken heart.Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.New Jersey's Richard Stockton, after rescuing his wife and childrenfrom advancing British troops, was betrayed by a loyalist, imprisoned,beaten and nearly starved. He returned an invalid to find his homegutted, and his library and papers burned. He, too, never recovered,dying in 1781 a broken man.William Ellery of Rhode Island, who marveled that he had seen only"undaunted resolution" in the faces of his co-signers, also had hishome burned.Only days after Lewis Morris of New York signed the Declaration,British troops ravaged his 2,000-acre estate, butchered his cattle anddrove his family off the land. Three of Morris' sons fought the British.When the British seized the New York houses of the wealthy PhilipLivingston, he sold off everything else, and gave the money to theRevolution. He died in 1778.Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge and Thomas Heyward Jr. wenthome to South Carolin tight. In the British invasion of the South,Heyward was wounded and all three were captured. As he rotted on aprison ship in St. Augustine, Heyward's plantation was raided, buildingsburned, and his wife, who witnessed it all, died. Other Southern signerssuffered the same general fate.Among the first to sign had been John Hancock, who wrote in big, boldscript so George III "could read my name without spectacles and couldnow double his reward for 500 pounds for my head." If the cause of therevolution commands it, roared Hancock, "Burn Boston and make JohnHancock a beggar!"Here were men who believed in a cause far beyond themselves.Such were the stories and sacrifices of the America revolution. Thesewere not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spokenmen of means and education. They had security, but they valued libertymore. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For thesupport of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of theDivine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, ourfortunes, and our sacred honor."
