These three documents, known collectively as the Charters of Freedom, have secured the rights of the American people for more than two and a quarter centuries and are considered instrumental to the founding and philosophy of the United States. Declaration of Independence Learn More The Declaration of Independence expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded and the reasons for The congressional revision process took all of July 3rd and most of July 4th. Finally, in the afternoon of July 4th, the Declaration was adopted. Under the supervision of the Jefferson committee, the approved Declaration was printed on July 5th and a copy was attached to the "rough journal of the Continental Congress for July 4th." The Declaration of Independence: About the Signers (Continued) Massachusetts John Adams (1735-1826)—John Adams was the first Vice-President of the United States and the second President. He was a member (along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman) chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. On July 4, 1776, the United States officially declared its independence from the British Empire when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was authored by a “Committee of Five”—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman—with Jefferson as the main drafter. But Jefferson himself later admitted 56 delegates to the Continental Congress signed the engrossed Declaration of Independence. Most of the signers voted in favor of independence on July 2nd. Some delegates who voted for independence did not sign the Declaration, and some signers were not delegates to Congress at the time of the vote. As of July 2024, there were 55 incorporated places with patriotic names. Topping the list: “Liberty” with “Independence” a distant second (Figure 2). The list also includes places with names containing a patriotic reference like Libertyville, Illinois, and Federal Heights, Colorado. The Declaration of Independence: A History. Nations come into being in many ways. Military rebellion, civil strife, acts of heroism, acts of treachery, a thousand greater and lesser clashes between defenders of the old order and supporters of the new--all these occurrences and more have marked the emergences of new nations, large and small. Name State Rep. Date of Birth Birthplace Age at Signing Occupation Number of Marriages Number of Children Date of Death Age at Death Morton, John PA c. 1724 Ridley Township, PA 52 Farmer 1 8 c. 1777 53 Nelson Jr., Thomas VA 12/26/1738 Yorktown, VA 37 Merchant, Plantation 1 13 1/4/1789 50 Paca, William MD 10/31/1740 Abington, MD 35 Lawyer There were 56 signers to the Declaration of Independence. The youngest was Edward Rutledge from South Carolina at 26 years old. The oldest was Benjamin Franklin at 70 years old. The signers of the Declaration of Independence included future Presidents, Vice Presidents, and members of the United States Congress. Below are the names of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the states that they represented: The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence occurred primarily on August 2, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. Welcome to ushistory.org's Declaration of Independence website, providing a wealth of information about the Declaration, biographies of all the signers, lesson plans for introducing students to the colonial and revolutionary eras of American history, and much more. Brief but detail-rich biographies of all the signers of the Declaration of Independence. A list of complaints by the colonists that were outlined in the Declaration of Independence. The list was approved by the Continental Congress. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution on display in the Library of Congress prior to the removal to the National Archives, 13 December 1952 The National Archives' Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom where, between two Barry Faulkner murals, the original United States Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and Signers of the Declaration of Independence Download this Information in PDF Format Born on April 13, 1743, near present-day Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson was the primary drafter of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. George Read (1733-1798) —George Read was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who voted against the proposal for independence introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. He was elected to the Continental Congress from 1774-1776, was a member of the Delaware Constitutional Convention in 1776, acting Governor of Delaware in 1777 On August 2, 1776, members of the Second Continental Congress, including John Hancock, the President of the Congress, began signing the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. John Hancock (1737-1793) • State: Massachusetts Hancock, a Massachusetts native who studied business at Harvard College, was the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence.
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