“The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
Benjamin Rush, a physician and signer of the Declaration, in 1798 after the Constitution was adopted
Signers of the Declaration of Independence
These signers were committing treason against Britain. They were putting their lives, families, homesteads, communities – everything on the line. And the stakes were impossible. The declaration was an act of war and that war would be waged with the greatest power in the world. How could a rag-tag group of militia armies from 13 colonies of the Crown successfully achieve an outcome that wouldn’t see these signers, especially, in prison and put to death? They were riding on what they knew to be right – freedom – and what they believed to be true – Providence.
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George Read
Delaware
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Caesar Rodney
Delaware
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Thomas McKean
Delaware
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George Clymer
Pennsylvania
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Benjamin Franklin
Pennsylvania
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Robert Morris
Pennsylvania
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John Morton
Pennsylvania
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Benjamin Rush
Pennsylvania
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James Smith
Pennsylvania
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James Wilson
Pennsylvania
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George Taylor
Pennsylvania
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Samuel Adams
Massachusetts
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John Adams
Massachusetts
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John Hancock
Massachusetts
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Robert Treat Paine
Massachusetts
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Elbridge Gerry
Massachusetts
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Josiah Bartlett
New Hampshire
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William Whipple
New Hampshire
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Matthew Thornton
New Hampshire
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William Ellery
Rhode Island
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Stephen Hopkins
Rhode Island
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Lewis Morris
New York
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Philip Livingston
New York
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Francis Lewis
New York
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William Floyd
New York
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Button Gwinnett
Georgia
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Lyman Hall
Georgia
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George Walton
Georgia
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Carter Braxton
Virginia
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Francis Lightfoot Lee
Virginia
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Richard Henry Lee
Virginia
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Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Virginia
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Benjamin Harrison
Virginia
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George Wythe
Virginia
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Thomas Jefferson
Virginia
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William Hooper
North Carolina
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John Penn
North Carolina
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Joseph Hewes
North Carolina
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Edward Rutledge
South Carolina
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Arthur Middleton
South Carolina
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Thomas Lynch
South Carolina
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Thomas Heyward, Jr.
South Carolina
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Richard Stockton
New Jersey
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John Hart
New Jersey
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Abraham Clark
New Jersey
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Francis Hopkinson
New Jersey
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John Witherspoon
New Jersey
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Samuel Huntington
Connecticut
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Roger Sherman
Connecticut
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William Williams
Connecticut
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Oliver Wolcott
Connecticut
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Charles Carroll
Maryland
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Samuel Chase
Maryland
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Thomas Stone
Maryland
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William Paca
Maryland