The Signing of the Declaration: The Day that Almost Didn’t Happen
We picture it as a single dramatic moment, the Founders gathered in Philadelphia's Independence Hall, quills in hand, signing their names to the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, in one unified act of defiance. John Trumbull painted it, and schoolbooks teach it that way. It did not happen that way. The signing of the Declaration of Independence was a process spread over weeks, hidden in secrecy, and included a level of real fear that paintings have carefully removed.
First, the date. The Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, not July 4. John Adams, convinced July 2nd was the date for the history books, wrote to his wife Abigail that it “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” He was off by two days. July 4th was when Congress approved the final text of the Declaration, the edited, intensely argued document. The famous date is the date of the document's adoption, not independence itself.
The formal signing ceremony did not occur on July 4th either. Most delegates signed on August 2, 1776, nearly a month later, after a carefully produced parchment copy had been prepared by Philadelphia penman Timothy Matlack. Several delegates who signed on August 2nd had not even been present in Philadelphia on July 4th. Some others who were present on July 4th had since left and signed later, some as late as November 1776. The dramatic signing depicted in Trumbull's 1818 painting is fiction. What he showcased was 47 of the 56 signers together in one room, when it never happened.
The secrecy surrounding the signing was intentional. The names of the signers were not made public for six months. Congress ordered the signed document kept confidential until January 1777, fearing that the British would use the list as a guide for arrests and executions. The men who signed were not thinking about where they would end up in history in August of 1776. They were placing their names on a document that, if the Revolution failed, would serve as evidence at their trials for treason. The penalty for treason was death by hanging.
The risks were nothing short of life-threatening. Of the 56 signers, at least 9 died during the Revolution. 5 were captured by the British. 17 lost their homes, businesses, or fortunes. Richard Stockton of New Jersey was captured, imprisoned, and so brutally treated that he broke under pressure and reportedly recanted his support for independence, a decision that haunted him until his death in 1781. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter, saw his fortune entirely disappear by the war. Thomas Nelson Jr. of Virginia directed artillery fire against his own home in Yorktown, which British General Cornwallis had taken over and used as his headquarters.
The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin at 70. The youngest was Edward Rutledge of South Carolina at 26. They were farmers, lawyers, merchants, and medical doctors. They were not in 100% agreement either. Some signed reluctantly and others were uncertain the cause could succeed. However, what they did share was a willingness to put their names to a belief that had never been successfully argued before a king's court, which was that people had the right to shake off their political bonds and govern themselves.
The original, signed document that survived the war has been stored in various locations over the years. It was nearly destroyed in the War of 1812 when the British burned Washington, and today resides in the National Archives, its ink nearly faded altogether from years of public display. The document is fragile, but the belief it contains has been proven over the years to outlast all odds.
Sources
Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997.
Ferris, Robert G., and Richard E. Morris. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Flagstaff: Interpretive Publications, 1982.
Hazelton, John H. The Declaration of Independence: Its History. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1906.
Adams, John. Letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776. Founders Online, National Archives. https://founders.archives.gov
Boyd, Julian P., ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950.
