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5. Pledging One’s Life
- University of Wisconsin Press
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102 5 Pledg ing One’s Life And for the sup port of this Dec lar a tion, with a firm re li ance on the pro tec tion of Di vine Prov i dence, we mu tu ally pledge to each other our Lives, our For tunes, and our sa cred Honor. Dec lar a tion of In de pen dence To me, the final par a graph is the most mov ing part of the U.S. Dec lar a tion of In de pen dence. Pic ture the scene: it is July 1776 in Phil a del phia; the Sec ond Con ti nen tal Con gress gath ers in the As sem bly Room of In de pen dence Hall. On the sec ond of the month, a vote of twelve of the thir teen col o nies (New York ab stain ing) starts the de lib er a tion on the Dec lar a tion of In de pen dence, as writ ten by the Com mit tee of Five. Now on July 4, sign ers ready them selves for the final vote. They know the risks. This is no small feat they pon der. Here they are, rep re sent ing a small group of as sorted col o nies on the East ern Sea board, about to face the brunt of the most pow er ful mil i tary on earth. A yea vote would break the bond that had de fined the col o nies from in cep tion. More over, once free, they could no longer count on the pro tec tion of the most pow er ful navy at the time. The doc u ment el o quently pro poses a ra tio nale for break ing away from Brit ish rule, with a long list of grie vances that plainly states the rea sons for such a po lit i cal act. But it is the clos ing par a graph that truly shows the hero ism of the Found ing Fathers. To the fu ture of their new na tion, they “pledged their lives, their for tunes and their sa cred honor.” For the sake of their new na tion, they were will ing to lay it all on the line! Pledging One’s Life 103 The re per cus sions were im me di ate. The Brit ish sent an ar mada to New York to crush the re bel lion, so many ships in deed that their masts were said to make the har bor look like a for est. Some 23,000 Brit ish reg u lars were on board, along with 10,000 Ger man mer cen ar ies— troops that would trounce George Washington’s army on Au gust 27, 1776.1 But as the colonies’ rep re sen ta tives gath ered in the As sem bly Room, they had no way of know ing the mag ni tude of the pun ish ment they would face, nor the final out come of their re bel lion. De clar ing them selves free from Brit ain would be con sid ered high trea son by the Crown, a crime pun ish able by death. And the re sponse would be swift and steady. All their earthly goods could surely be con fis cated by King George in light of their vote, throw ing their fam i lies into ab ject des ti tu tion. Every thing laid in the bal ance on that bright, sunny, but cool Phil a del phia day. Their votes would cer tainly upset their live li hoods and safety for the re main der of the Rev o lu tion. But by late after noon, church bells rang out through out the city mark ing the Declaration’s final adop tion. Not only had the mem bers of the Sec ond Con ti nen tal Con gress ap proved the Dec lar a tion of In de pen dence, but they ended it with a pow er ful state ment of faith in their new na tion. All they deemed pre cious hung in the bal ance, for the sake of their fu ture coun try. They were ready and will ing to in vest all they could mus ter on a cause still un cer tain at the time. Ever since, those who cast their lot with this coun try have done no less. All of...