Existing comment:
Signing Their Death Warrants
From the beginning of the war, when Thomas Gage, the royal governor of Massachusetts, singled out Samuel Adams and John Hancock in his proclamation, the British intended to make examples out of American leaders. Signers of the Declaration were aware of the great risk associated with adding names to the document. Benjamin Rush later recalled the "pensive and awful silence" at the statehouse when it was time "to subscribe what was believed by many at the time to be our own death warrants."
Wherever the British army invaded, signers, their families, and their property became key targets. Almost half of the signers suffered tremendous losses in family and fortune because of their connection to the Declaration. |