State house that's now called independence hall in philadelphia. The best men from each of the colonies sat down together which was very fortunate. Our in our nation's history one of those rare occasions in the lives of men when we had greatness to spare these were men of means well educated twenty four lawyers and jurists. Nine were farmers owners of large plantations on june. eleven committee. Sat down to draw a declaration of independence where we're going to tell the british fatherland no more rule my redcoats below the dam ruthless foreign ruler stream of freedom was running shallow muddy and we were going to light a fuse to dynamite. That dan this pact. Has burke later put. It was a partnership between the living. And the dead and the yet unborn. There was no bigotry. There was no demagoguery in this group all had shared hardships. Jefferson finished draft of the document in seventeen days. Congress adopted it in july and so much familiar history but now king. George third had denounced all rebels in america as traitors punishment for treason was hanging the names now. So familiar to you from the several signatures on that declaration of independence. The names were kept secret for six months for each new. The full meaning of that magnificent last paragraph in which his signature pledged his life his fortune and who sacred honor fifty. Six men placed their names beneath that pledge. Fifty six men knew when they signed that they were risking everything they knew if they won this fight the best they could expect would be years of hardship and a struggling nation and if they lost they'd face a hangman's rope but they signed the pledge and here is the documented fate that gallant fifty-six carter braxton of virginia wealthy planter trader saw. His ships swept from the seas to pay his debts. He lost his home and all of his properties and died in rags. Thomas lynch junior who signed that pledge was up third generation rice grower aristocrat large plantation on her after he signed his health failed his wife and he's set out for france to regain his failing health. Their ship never got to. France was never heard from again. Thomas mckean of delaware so harassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times. In five months he served in congress without pay. His family and poverty and in hiding vandals looted the properties of ellery and climber and hall gwinnett and walton and hayward rutledge and middleton thomas nelson. Junior virginia raised two million dollars on his own signature to provision our allies. The french fleet after the war. He personally paid back. The loans wiped out his entire estate and he was never reimbursed by his government in the final battle for yorktown. He nelson urged general washington to fire on his. Nelson's own home which was occupied by cornwallis. It was destroyed. Thomas nelson junior had pledged his life his fortune and his sacred honor. The heavens seized the home of francis hopkinson of new jersey francis. Lewis had his home and everything destroyed his wife imprisoned. She died within a few months. Richard stockton who signed that declaration was captured. Mistreated his health broken to the extent that he died at fifty one. His estate was pillaged. Thomas hayward junior was captured when charleston fell. John hart was driven from his wife's bedside while she was dying. Their thirteen children fled in all directions for their lives. There's fields and gristmill were laid waste for more than a year. He lived in forests and caves and returned home after the war to find his wife. Did his children gone his property's gone and he died a few weeks later of exhaustion. A broken heart lewis morris so his land destroyed his family scattered. Philip livingston died within a few months from the hardships of the war. John hancock history remembers best due to a quirk of fate than anything. He stood for that great sweeping signature attesting to his vanity towers over the others one of the wealthiest men in new england and yet he stood outside boston one terrible night of the war and he said burn boston though it makes hancock beggar if the public good requires it so he to lived up to the pledge of the fifty-six few were long to survive five were.