Declaration of Independence
Signatures, important facts, and the purpose behind it.
Signers:
Delaware: George Read, Ceaser Rodney, and Thomas McKean
Pennsylvania: Georgia Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, James Smith George Taylor, John Morton, George Ross, and James Wilson
Massachusetts: John Adams, John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, Samuel Adams, and Robert
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
New York: Lewis Morris, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, William Floyd
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Virginia: Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, Thomas Nelson Jr
North Carolina: William Hooper, John Penn, Joseph Hewes
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton, ThomasHeyward Jr
New Jersey: Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon
Connecticut: Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, William William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
Maryland: Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca
Important Facts:
*Once the Declaration of Independence had been written and signed, printer John Dunlap was asked to make about 200 copies to be distributed throughout the colonies. Today, the “Dunlap Broadsides” are extremely rare and valuable. In 1989, someone discovered a previously unknown Dunlap Broadside. It was sold for over $8 million in 2000. There are only 26 known surviving Dunlap Broadsides today.
*Robert Livingston, one of the members of the committee who wrote the Declaration of Independence, never signed it. He believed that it was too soon to declare independence and therefore refused to sign.
*After Jefferson wrote his first draft of the Declaration, the other members of the Declaration committee and the Continental Congress made 86 changes to Jefferson’s draft, including shortening the overall length by more than a fourth.
*On December 13, 1952, the Declaration of Independence (along with the Constitution and Bill of Rights) was formally delivered to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where it has remained since then.
*The two youngest signers of the Declaration of Independence were both from South Carolina. Thomas Lynch, Jr. and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina were both born in 1749 and were only 26 when they signed the Declaration.
*Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the vote to approve the Declaration of Independence.
*Nine of the signers of the Declaration died before the American Revolution ended in 1783.
*No one who signed the Declaration of Independence was born in the United States of America. The United States didn't exist until after the Declaration was signed! However, all but eight of the signers were born in colonies that would become the United States.
(Found off of http://www.constitutionfacts.com/?section=declaration&page=fascinatingFacts.cfm)
Purpose behind it:
The Purpose was that the people over in America wanted to breakaway from England and wanted their independence.