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Dear Family and Friends: as Fourth of July approaches, here's a reminder
of where it started. Author, unknown.
.....
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the
Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before
they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army: another had two
sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the
Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred
honor.
What kind of men were they?
24 were lawyers and jurists. 11 were merchants, 9 were farmers and large
plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the
Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be
death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties
to pay his debts and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move
his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay and
his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him and
poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British
General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.
He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed
his wife and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13
children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to
waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning
home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later
he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These
were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men
of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more.
Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledges: "For the support
of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine
providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and
our sacred honor."
They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books
never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We
didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and
we fought our own government!
Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they
paid. Remember: freedom is never free!
I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many people as
you can. It's time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and
the Fourth of July has more to it than picnics, and baseball game.
"The man who follows the crowd will usually go no further then the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been" Alen Ashley-Pitt
This 4th of July
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