Existing comment:
Signing the Declaration of Independence:
August 2, 1776
We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
They made a commitment that changed their lives, and ours. For each of the signers of the Declaration, it amounted to treason. It could have led to imprisonment and death. The mutual pledge that they made when they endorsed independence not only sounded serious, it was.
Tell them that they will live to see the hour, when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my country.
-- John Morton, on his deathbed, April 1777
We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.
-- Benjamin Franklin, August 2, 1776
I was well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory.
-- John Adams, July 3, 1776 |