In the summer of 1776, a small group of men from all walks of life—lawyers, merchants, farmers, doctors, and ministers—stepped forward one by one to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence. There was no fanfare, no trumpets, but the event was sobering if not ceremonious. Fully aware of the risk—treason against the crown was punished with death by hanging—these men pledged their lives to the sacred cause of liberty. Sixty-year-old Stephen Hopkins, a delegate from Rhode Island, declared with a shaking pen, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.”[1]
These men paid a heavy price for their valor. One of the signers, Abraham Clark, a representative from New Jersey, had two sons serving in the revolutionary army. They had been captured by the British and were subjected to severe brutality because of their father’s position. Clark was offered his sons’ lives if he would renounce the rebellion and support the King of England. With resolve matched only by his personal anguish, he refused. His commitment to freedom still resonates more than 200 years later.
Not many observers gave the new nation much chance of survival. But it did survive. And it flourished.
The Founding Fathers would be proud of America today. They would see a people who are strong, decent, and good-hearted, who demonstrate the truth of George Washington’s statement early in the revolution, when the outcome was still in doubt: “Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”[2] Year after year as we celebrate the birth of this nation, we declare that independence is much more than a document under glass. We add our names to the list of those who have shaped America, who say with pride and pleasure, “This is my country.”
Program #4009
[1]In David McCullough, John Adams (2001), 138.
[2]In David McCullough, 1776 (2005), 41.