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GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
 July
2nd, 1776. Continental Congress votes 12-0, New York
abstains. July 4th, the Declaration of Independence drafted
by Thomas Jefferson and heavily edited by congress adopted
without dissent. July 8th, the Declaration was publicly
proclaimed in Philadelphia. On the 9th it was recited before
General George Washington and his troops in New York City.
On July 15th congress learns that New York has decided to
endorse the Declaration. On August 2nd, a parchment copy
presented to the Congress for signature. Most of the 56 men
who put their name on the document did so that day. And then
what? Well, we tend to forget that to sign the Declaration
of Independence was to commit an act of treason and the
punishment for treason was death. Signing was a move fraught
with danger, so much so that the names of the signers were
kept secret for six months. The signers were risking
everything. They were risking everything, and they knew it.
That's the meaning of the Declaration's last sentence: And
for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on
the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to
each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Most of the signers survived the war. Several went on to
illustrious careers. Two of them became Presidents of the
United States. Among the others were future vice presidents,
senators and governors. But not all were so fortunate. Nine
of the 56 died during the Revolution, never tasted American
independence. Five were captured by the British. 18 had
their homes, great estates some of them, looted or burned by
the enemy. Some lost everything they owned. Two were wounded
in battle. Two others were fathers of sons who were killed
during the war. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor.
You know, we all recognize John Hancock's signature, but
whoever notices the names beneath his? Like William Hillary,
Thomas Nelson, Richard Stockton, Francis Lewis. Most of us,
we here these names and they have no meaning, but they each
represent a real human being, some of whom paid dearly for
the support of this Declaration and American independence.
Louis Morris of New York, for example, must have known when
he signed the Declaration that he was signing away his
fortune for within weeks the British ravaged his estate,
destroyed his vast woodlands, butchered his cattle and sent
his family fleeing for their lives.
Another New Yorker, William Floyd, he was forced to flee
when the British plundered his property. He and his family
lived as refugees for seven years without any income. The
strain tolled on his wife. She died two years before the war
ended.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, he was a planter who had
invested heavily in shipping. He saw most of his vessels
captured by the British Navy, his estates largely ruined. By
the end of his life, he was a pauper. Our lives, our
fortunes and our sacred honor.
Thomas Nelson, Jr. of Virginia raised more than $2 million
for the patriots cause on his own personal credit. The
Government never reimbursed him, and repaying the loans
wiped out his entire estate. During the battle of Yorktown,
his house which had been seized by the British and occupied
by General Cornwallis, Nelson quietly urged the gunners to
fire on his own home. They did so destroying it. He was
never again a man of wealth. He died, was buried in an
unmarked grave. He stopped in a New Jersey Supreme Court,
betrayed by loyalist neighbors. He was dragged from his bed,
thrown in prison where he was brutally beaten and starved.
His lands were devastated, his horses stolen, his library
burned and his family lived on charity for the rest of their
lives. And then there was John Hart, the speaker of the New
Jersey assembly. He was forced to flee in the winter of '76
at the age of 65 from his dying wife's bedside while he hid
in forests and caves. His home was demolished, his fields
and mill lay waste and his 13 children put to flight. When
it was finally safe for him to return, he found his wife
dead, his children missing, his property decimated. He never
saw any of his family again.
The men who signed that piece of parchment in 1776 were the
elite of their colonies. They are men of means and social
standing but for the sake of liberty they pledged it all:
Their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.
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