America 250: 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence on Aug. 2, not July 4

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(The Center Square) – Fifty-six men risked their lives to sign the Declaration of Independence – not on July 4 but on August 2, 1776. 

The only two men to sign the Declaration on July 4 were Continental Congress President John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson. 

Virginia’s Richard Henry Lee proposed independence in the Lee Resolution on June 11. There was no consensus, the vote got pushed back several weeks and the first vote on July 1 failed. South Carolina and Pennsylvania voted no. New York abstained and Delaware was deadlocked. Only 9 colonies voted yes. 

By July 2, 12 of the 13 colonies voted yes with New York abstaining. This was made possible after several twists of providence. One involved two Pennsylvania delegates who opposed independence skipping the vote. This enabled three who supported independence to outvote the remaining two naysayers. Another was the Paul Revere of Delaware, sickly Caesar Rodney. After learning that Delaware was deadlocked, he rode 80 miles overnight in a storm to cast the tiebreaking vote. 

After two days of debate and more than 80 edits, the Declaration was adopted on July 4. Philadelphia printer John Dunlap printed 200 copies of “a Declaration,” distributed colony wide. It wasn’t unanimous because New York wouldn’t approve it until July 9.

Many signers were poor. Many others were wealthy, including those who funded the war effort and died penniless or suffered in debtor’s prison like Pennsylvania’s James Wilson and Robert Morris. 

Many signers suffered great personal tragedy. New York’s Francis Lewis’ wife was imprisoned. New Jersey’s Abraham Clark’s sons were imprisoned, suffered and killed. Georgia’s George Walton and New Jersey’s Richard Stockton were also imprisoned. 

New Jersey’s John Witherspoon, the only ordained minister who signed the Declaration after rallying for independence from the pulpit, lost his son in the Battle of Germantown. 

Eight of the signers weren’t born in the colonies. Pennsylvania’s Morris and Georgia’s Button Gwinnett were born in England. New York’s Francis Lewis was born in Wales. Pennsylvania’s James Smith and George Taylor and New Hampshire’s Matthew Thorton were born in Ireland. Pennsylvania’s James Wilson and New Jersey’s John Witherspoon were born in Scotland. 

None of North Carolina’s signers were born in North Carolina and they all died before age 50. Two of the youngest signers, 26, were from South Carolina. The oldest was Ben Franklin, 70. The only Roman Catholic signer was Charles Carroll of Maryland.

The Declaration was printed in every newspaper in the colonies, first by Franklin’s paper in Philadelphia on July 6. It was printed in German on July 9 in Philadelphia for a large German immigrant population. It was printed in Charlestown, South Carolina, in August 1776.

Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore was the first woman publisher to print it. She was also the first to print that the declaration was “unanimous” and include the signers’ names.

Of the 200 Dunlap broadsides printed, only 20 are preserved by U.S. institutions. Two are held by British institutions, including one confiscated from a Jewish merchant, Jonas Phillips. Phillips tried to get the word out, joyfully writing about independence in Yiddish.

The Declaration lists 27 grievances against the British king, including taxation without representation, dissolving state legislatures, controlling judges, eliminating jury trials and blocking trade. The most egregious include the king “waging war against us … [who] plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” 

After their petitions went unanswered, the signers declared a united independence “with a firm reliance on Divine Providence” pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.

The signers, from north to south, were:

• New Hampshire: Josiah Barrlett, Matthew Thornton and William Whipple;

• Massachusetts: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine;

• Rhode Island: William Ellery and Stephen Hopkins;

• Connecticut: Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, William Williams, and Oliver Wolcott;

• New York: William Floyd, Francis Lewis, Philip Livingston and Lewis Morris;

• New Jersey: Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton and John Witherspoon; 

• Pennsylvania: George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, John Morton, George Ross, Benjamin Rush, James Smith, George Taylor and James Wilson;

• Delaware: Thomas McKean, George Read and Caesar Rodney;

• Maryland: Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase, William Paca and Thomas Stone;

• Virginia: Carter Braxton, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Nelson Jr. and George Wythe;

• North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, William Hooper and John Penn;

• South Carolina: Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton and Edward Rutledge;

• Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall and George Walton.

Sixteen signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. 

Six signed the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution: George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Read, Roger Sherman and James Wilson.

Two signed all three founding documents: Robert Morris and Roger Sherman.

Sherman is the only one to have signed all four founding documents: the Articles of Association, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and U.S. Constitution.