DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE

I read the following remarks by GLENN BECK last year at our family patriotic morning devotional on the 4th. We sang God Bless America, said the pledge, then listened to these inspiring words. I think they bear repeating. Thanks Glenn.

We tend to forget that to sign the Declaration of Independence was to commit an act of treason and the punishment for treason was death. Signing was a move fraught with danger, so much so that the names of the signers were kept secret for 6 months. The signers were risking everything and they knew it. That's the meaning of the Declaration's last sentence: And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Most of the signers survived the war. Several went on to illustrious careers. Two of them became Presidents of the United States. Among the others were future vice presidents, senators and governors. But not all were so fortunate. Nine of the 56 died during the Revolution, having never tasted American independence. Five were captured by the British. Eighteen had their homes, great estates some of them, looted or burned by the enemy. Some lost everything they owned. Two were wounded in battle. Two others were fathers of sons who were killed during the war. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

You know, we all recognize John Hancock's signature, but whoever notices the names beneath his? Like William Hillary, Thomas Nelson, Richard Stockton, Francis Lewis. Most of us, we hear these names and they have no meaning, but they each represent a real human being, some of whom paid dearly for the support of this Declaration and American independence. Louis Morris of New York, for example, must have know when he signed the Declaration that he was signing away his fortune, for within weeks the British ravaged his estate, destroyed his vast woodland, butchered his cattle and sent his family fleeing for their lives.
Another New Yorker, William Floyd, was forced to flee when the British plundered his property. He and his family lived as refugees for 7 years without any income. The strain tolled on his wife. She died 2 years before the war ended.
Carter Braxton of Virginia was a planter who had invested heavily in shipping. He saw most of his vessels captured by the British Navy, his estates largely reined. By the end of his life, he was a paper. Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Thomas Nelson, Jr. of Virginia raised more than two million dollars for the patriots cause on his own personal credit. The Government never reimbursed him, and repaying the loans wiped out his entire estate. During the battle of Yorktown, his house had been seized by the British and occupied by General Cornwallis. Nelson quietly urged the gunners to fire on his own home. They did so, destroying it. He was never again a man of wealth. He died and was buried in an unmarked grave. And then there was John Hart, the speaker of the New Jersey assembly. He was forced to flee in the winter of '76 at the age of 65 from his dying wife's bedside while he hid in forets and caves. His home was demolished, his fields and mill lay waste and his 13 children put to flight. When it was finally safe for hime to return, he found his wife dead, his children missing, his proeperty decimated. He never saw any of his family again.

The men who signed that piece of parchment in 1776 were the elite of their colonies. They were men of means and social standing but for the sake of liberty they pledged it all: Their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.