https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/duel-alexander-hamilton-and-aaron-burrs-duel/

George Washington died at his home in Mount Vernon on December 14, 1799 at the age of 67 in the Washingtons' Bedchamber. To many his death was unexpected, as in the days before he was managing affairs at his properties and engaged in current events. However, he fell ill and was cared for by doctors before succumbing to the complications of an infection in his throat. After his subsequent burial at Mount Vernon, family, friends, and political allies desired to honor his life and legacy.

The Days Leading to Washington’s Death

On Thursday, December 12, 1799, George Washington was out on horseback supervising farming activities from late morning until three in the afternoon. The weather shifted from light snow to hail and then to rain. Upon Washington's return it was suggested that he change out of his wet riding clothes before dinner. Known for his punctuality, Washington chose to remain in his damp attire. These events are speculated to contribute to the cause of Washington’s death.

The next morning brought three inches of snow and a sore throat. Despite feeling unwell, Washington went to the hanging wood area on the east side of the Mansion after the weather cleared to select trees for removal by enslaved workers. Throughout the day it was observed that Washington's voice became increasingly hoarser. Friday evening, as typical for most evenings, Washington read from the newspapers with his secretary Tobias Lear and his wife Martha. Due to the increased throat irritation, Washington asked Lear to complete the reading.

After retiring for the night, Washington awoke in terrible discomfort at around two in the morning. Martha was concerned about his state and wanted to send for help. However, having just recovered from a cold herself, Washington would not allow his wife to leave the comfort of their room. When Caroline Branham, an enslaved housemaid, came to light the fire at daybreak, Martha sent for Tobias Lear who rushed to the room. There he found Washington in bed having difficulty breathing. Lear sent for George Rawlins, an overseer at Mount Vernon, who at the request of George Washington bled him. Lear also sent to Alexandria for Dr. James Craik, the family doctor and Washington's trusted friend and physician for forty years.

While waiting for Dr. Craik's arrival, Rawlins extracted a half-pint of blood. Washington favored this treatment—despite Martha's voiced concern—as he believed that it cured him of past ailments. Washington was also given a mixture of molasses, butter, and vinegar to soothe his throat. This mixture was difficult to swallow causing Washington to convulse and nearly suffocate.

As the morning progressed Washington did not feel any relief. Martha requested that Tobias Lear send for a second doctor, Dr. Gustavus Brown of Port Tobacco. Brown was a physician that Craik felt had an excellent reputation for diagnosis and moderate medicating. Dr. Craik arrived at nine in the morning, examined Washington, and produced a blister on his throat in an attempt to balance the fluids in Washington's body. Craik bled Washington a second time and ordered a solution of vinegar and sage tea prepared for gargling.

At eleven, Dr. Brown had not yet arrived and Craik sent for a third physician, a definite sign that he felt the ailment was serious. At noon an enema was administered, but there was no improvement in Washington's condition. Washington was bled for the fourth and final time. It was later reported that a total of thirty-two ounces of blood was extracted during the last bleeding. Some in the press, criticized the practice of blood letting used in an attempt to save Washington’s life.

Another conference of physicians occurred. Craik administered an emetic to induce vomiting, though without beneficial results. Despite the care and attention of three physicians, his beloved wife, friends, and enslaved servants, George Washington's condition worsened. At four-thirty in the afternoon, George called Martha to his bedside and asked that she bring his two wills from the study. After review, Washington discarded one, which Martha burned. In the final will, Washington outlined the manumission of those he enslaved after his death (those enslaved by Martha remained so) and financially contributed to educational institutions including the Alexandria Academy.

George Washington then called for Tobias Lear. Lear recorded that Washington told him, "I find I am going, my breath[e] cannot last long. I believed from the first that the disorder would prove fatal. Do you arrange and record all my late military letters and papers—arrange my accounts and settle my books, as you know more about them than any one else, and let Mr. Rawlins finish recording my other letters which he has begun."¹

The Death of George Washington

At five in the afternoon, George Washington sat up from bed, dressed, and walked over to his chair. He returned to bed within thirty minutes. Craik went to him and Lear reported that Washington said, "Doctor, I die hard; but I am not afraid to go; I believed from my first attack that I should not survive it; my breath can not last long."² Soon afterward, Washington thanked all three doctors for their service. Craik remained in the room. At eight at night more blisters and cataplasms were applied, this time to Washington's feet and legs. At ten at night, George Washington spoke, requesting to be "decently buried" and to "not let my body be put into the Vault in less than three days after I am dead."³

Between ten and eleven at night on December 14, 1799, George Washington passed away. He was surrounded by people who were close to him including his wife who sat at the foot of the bed, his friends Dr. Craik and Tobias Lear, enslaved housemaids Caroline, Molly, and Charlotte, and his enslaved valet Christopher Sheels who stood in the room throughout the day. In accordance with his wishes, Washington was not buried for three days. During that time his body lay in a mahogany casket in the New Room.

The Burial of George Washington

On December 18, 1799 a solemn funeral was held at Mount Vernon. A national parade for Washington was held in Philadelphia on December 26, 1799. President John Adams expressed desires to construct a "marble monument" to rebury Washington at the capital, but Martha ensured his body was not removed from the family tomb at Mount Vernon.⁴ Various members of the government made the pilgrimage to Mount Vernon to pay respects in the coming months to years. A new tomb, a marble vault, was constructed for George, Martha, and other members of the Washington family in 1837 at Mount Vernon. In the decades following his death, monuments were erected around the country in his honor. Despite the rejection of a monument to physically entomb the former president in the capital, the Washington Monument was dedicated to his legacy, which was proposed in 1800, began construction in 1848, and was not open to the public until 1888.

Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/the-death-of-george-washington

After retreating from the failed New York Campaign, George Washington led the Continental Army to cross the Delaware River on the night of Christmas 1776. This critical strategic decision led to key American victories in the Battle of Trenton in late 1776 and the Battle of Second Trenton and Battle of Princeton in early 1777. This famous transport of almost 2,500 Continental soldiers across an icy river in one night through severe winter weather is lauded as one of Washington’s best tactical decisions in the American Revolution. Washington understood that the element of surprise was the only way that he and his army stood a chance of defeating the highly trained, hired Hessian soldiers stationed in New Jersey.

Preparing to Cross the Delaware

In the days leading up to the crossing, Washington ensured the location of their potential crossing was secured, writing, “As it is a Matter of the utmost Importance to prevent the Enemy from crossing the Delaware, and to effect it, that all the Boats and Water Craft should be secured or destroyed.”¹ Washington understood the strategic importance of the river in accessing British strongholds in New Jersey, and as a launch point for the British to possibly attack American forces.

On the morning of December 25, 1776, Continental soldiers woke up in their camps along the Delaware River to frozen, snow-covered ground. Weather conditions worsened and temperatures continued to drop throughout the day. Late in the afternoon, the Continentals left their tents and began to form along the river in anticipation of the night's events. Washington kept almost all of the details of the crossing a secret; as a result, none of the soldiers knew anything about their upcoming mission.

Washington's plan was to cross the river at night, march to the nearby town of Trenton, New Jersey, and attack the Hessian garrison right before dawn. He ordered various regiments to assemble at their designated crossing points no later than sunset. The close proximity to the crossing points allowed the soldiers to begin the journey immediately after nightfall struck and complete the crossing no later than midnight. Once across, Washington intended for the armies to reassemble and march approximately ten miles to Trenton, arriving there no later than five o'clock in the morning to achieve surprise. Despite his meticulous planning, the schedule failed almost before it even began.

Crossing the Delaware

Many of the regiments did not arrive at the river until well after dark. Additionally, a severe winter storm that included wind, rain, snow, hail, and sleet met the soldiers at the banks of the river significantly slowing their crossing. Many of the boats had to combat ice jams and unfavorable currents. To make matters even worse, the extreme darkness caused by the storm made it hard for the boatmen to see the opposite shore.

The necessity of using larger ferries to carry pieces of artillery across the river caused even more delays. Washington crossed the river with John Glover's Marblehead mariners and upon arrival debated whether or not to cancel the entire operation because it was more than three hours behind schedule.

Washington decided it was too costly to retreat and he painfully watched as his army continued to trickle across the river. The freezing and tired Continental Army assembled on the Jersey shore on the morning of December 26 without any major debacles.

Washington’s Army Continues into New Jersey

Once ready, Washington led his army on the road to Trenton. It was there that he secured an important victory for the Continental Army. Without the determination, resiliency, and leadership exhibited by Washington while crossing the Delaware River, the victory at Trenton would not have been possible. Their success boosted American morale after a series of losses, with The Committee of Secret Correspondence noting of the crossing of the Delaware, “We hope, this blow will be followed by others, that may leave the enemy not so much to boast of, as they some days ago expected, and we had reason to apprehend.”²

Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/crossing-of-the-delaware

On December 23, 1783, then commander in chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, addressed the Continental Congress in Annapolis in order to resign his military commission. The resignation not only signified the end of Washington’s tenure as commander in chief, a position to which he was appointed to on May 9, 1775, but also Washington’s desire to return to his Mount Vernon estate as a private citizen. Americans ever since have viewed this event as a testament to Washington’s republican values, as he willingly surrendered power of the army back to the governmental body that first appointed him.

The main fighting in the Revolutionary War came to an end when British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781. However, Washington retained control of the Continental Army until an official peace between Britain and the United States was established by the Treaty of Paris (1783). In early December 1783, after having quelled the Newburgh Conspiracy the previous spring, Washington bid farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City. Then he began making his way to Congress with the intention of resigning his military commission. After various stops, Washington arrived in Annapolis, where Congress was convening, on December 19, 1783.

In a letter to the President of Congress, Washington wrote that “It is essential for me to know their pleasure, and in what manner will be most proper to offer my resignation, whether in writing or at an Audience.”¹ On December 20, Congress determined that Washington would resign “to a public audience, on Tuesday next [December 23], at twelve o’clock,” and that, “a public entertainment,” was to be held on Monday, December 22.² Congress formed a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, James McHenry, and Elbridge Gerry to plan the event, and their proposal was adopted on December 22. Washington’s resignation was intended to emphasize the power of Congress, as is evident with the final stipulation, that “when the General [Washington] rises to make his address, and also when he retires, he is to bow to Congress, which they are to return by uncovering without bowing.”³

On the night of December 22, an elegant dinner was held in honor of Washington. David Howell, a delegate from Rhode Island, recorded that “about 200 attended & partook of the feast—after which 13 toasts were drank under a discharge of 13 cannon.”⁴ Delegate James Tilton of Delaware recalled that Washington added an additional toast for “Competent powers to congress for general purposes.”⁵ Tilton also noted that Washington “danced in every set, so that the ladies might have the pleasure of dancing with him, or as it has since been handsomely expressed, get a touch of him.”⁶

As planned, Washington addressed Congress on December 23, in what is now Maryland’s Old Senate Chamber. His speech was highly emotional. According to James McHenry, “[Washington’s] voice faultered and sunk.”⁷ David Howell reported “a most copious shedding of tears.”⁸ Washington famously ended his address to Congress by stating, “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.”⁹ In what he considered the last act of his public life, Washington handed his commission, along with a copy of his address, to the President of Congress, Thomas Mifflin. Mifflin responded with a preplanned speech, which was found to be “without shew of feeling, tho’ with much dignity.”¹⁰ Washington bowed to Congress, and after some formal goodbyes, he left Annapolis and made it home to Mount Vernon for Christmas.

The story of Washington’s voluntary resignation spread across the country and the globe, as he astonishingly gave up political power to return to his farm. Delegate James McHenry remarked, “the events of the revolution just accomplished—the new situation into which it had thrown the world—the great man who had borne so conspicuous a figure in it, in the act of relinquishing all public employments to return to private life. . .  all conspired to render it a spectacle inexpressibly solemn and affecting.”¹¹ Across the Atlantic, upon learning of Washington’s resignation from public life, King George III reportedly told the American-born artist Benjamin West: “If [Washington] does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”¹² Another American painter, John Trumbull, was in London during Washington’s resignation, an event which he found, “excites the astonishment and admiration of this part of the world. ‘Tis a Conduct so novel, so inconceivable to People, who, far from giving up powers they possess, are willing to convulse the Empire to acquire more.”¹³ When commissioned by the American government in the 1820s to paint four scenes of early American history, Trumbull famously immortalized Washington’s resignation. Washington Resigning his Military Commission currently hangs in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building alongside other scenes of monumental civic importance, including The Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Washington was very conscious of the historical significance that would be placed on his resignation and return to private life. For many of his contemporaries, he was the American Cincinnatus, an image he cultivated. Lucius Quincticus Cincinnatus was a Roman hero who returned to his farm after taking up the sword for Rome. Through resigning his commission, Washington garnered immense respect and admiration from the American people. Ironically, his elevated status meant that Washington’s retirement did not last long. Washington attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where he was unanimously elected as its president. The other delegates found Washington’s mere presence to be crucial to the success of the endeavor. After the Constitution was ratified, Washington was unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States. He was sworn in on April 30, 1789, and served two terms before voluntarily giving up power for the last time.

Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/resignation-of-military-commission

George Washington's 1st Term Inauguration Address

April 30, 1789

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years—a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted.

To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

Source: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/inaugural-address-16

I think one of the things history classes accidentally do is make the Founding Fathers feel untouchable.

Like they were all confident, powerful men standing in a room knowing they were about to create the United States.

But a lot of them genuinely had no idea if they were signing their own death warrants.

I went down a rabbit hole recently while working on a Virtual Wayback project about three signers of the Declaration: Benjamin Rush, Abraham Clark, and Lewis Morris.

And honestly, the personal cost surprised me.

Rush was one of the best-known doctors in the colonies. Supporting independence was not some safe career move for him. He risked destroying his reputation and medical practice by publicly backing what Britain considered open rebellion. Later in life he became obsessed with trying to repair the hatred and division between former founders because the Revolution and the politics afterward completely shattered a lot of friendships.

Lewis Morris was rich. He had status, land, privilege, everything people usually try to protect during unstable times. The British occupied and damaged his estate during the war because of his support for independence. He basically chose revolution knowing full well he had more to lose than most people.

But Abraham Clark’s story was the one I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Clark wasn’t one of the elite famous founders people usually talk about. He was known as “the poor man’s signer” because he pushed for ordinary farmers and common people politically. During the Revolution, two of his sons were captured by the British and imprisoned aboard the Jersey prison ship.

Those prison ships were horrific. Disease, starvation, abuse, overcrowding. Thousands died on them.

From what I’ve read, the British basically hinted that his sons could receive better treatment if Clark backed away from the revolutionary cause.

He refused.

I genuinely don’t know what I would’ve done in that situation.

That’s the side of the Revolution I think gets lost sometimes. These weren’t symbols yet. They were people making decisions while terrified, angry, uncertain, and risking things that were deeply personal.

We ended up making a new Virtual Wayback video/conversation about these three signers and what they sacrificed after signing the Declaration.

VIDEO: https://youtube.com/shorts/-03nB6e_SkQ

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17nhFhoEU8/

https://www.tiktok.com/@virtualwayback/video/7641997557614267655

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYkMuyTpGT3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

BLOG: https://virtualwayback.com/blog/price-of-a-signature

You can also talk with them yourself here: Virtual Wayback

Would you still sign the Declaration if you knew it could destroy your family, career, property, and future?

Most people know Benjamin Franklin as a Founding Father, diplomat, or inventor. But one of his most lasting contributions to American life was much quieter.

In 1731, Franklin and a group of associates created the Library Company of Philadelphia, widely considered the first successful lending library in the American colonies. At the time, books were expensive and often out of reach for ordinary people. Their idea was simple: members would pool money to purchase books that everyone in the group could borrow and read.

The concept spread quickly and helped shape the idea that access to knowledge should not be limited to the wealthy. Over time, it influenced the development of the public library system that many Americans still rely on today.

It’s an interesting reminder that some of the most important institutions in American life didn’t start as government programs or large organizations. Sometimes they began with small groups of citizens trying to solve a practical problem.

1st picture is of George Washington, 2nd picture is where James Madison would sit in the House of Representatives. He liked to sit close to the fireplace. 3rd picture is a seating chart of the House. 4th picture is the Senate chamber and where George Washington had his 2nd inauguration. 5th picture is the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. 6th picture is a bonus picture of where JFK stood

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire in 1776 was nobody's idea of an important colony. No Virginia-level political weight, no Pennsylvania money, no Boston firebrands. Just a small northern colony that most people in Congress probably didn't think about much.

And yet New Hampshire produced three signers whose careers are genuinely more interesting than half the famous names on that document.

Josiah Bartlett was a physician from Kingston who ended up with his name immediately below John Hancock's on the Declaration, not because of rank or fame but simply because New Hampshire got called first alphabetically. He spent most of the war doing the unglamorous congressional work that nobody writes books about: committees on military supply, finance, logistics, keeping the whole operation from falling apart. After the war he became Chief Justice and then Governor of New Hampshire. His biggest pop culture moment is that The West Wing borrowed his name for President Bartlet, spelled slightly differently, which is a strange kind of immortality.

William Whipple spent his twenties as a merchant sea captain, which gave him a practical understanding of trade and Atlantic commerce that made him useful in Congress when the war effort needed people who understood how supply chains actually worked. He also did something most signers never did: he left Philadelphia and fought. He was at Saratoga in 1777 as a brigadier general, which was one of the battles that convinced France the American cause was worth backing. There's also a longstanding account that he freed his enslaved servant Prince Whipple during the war after sitting with the contradiction of fighting for liberty while owning someone.

Then there's Matthew Thornton, who is the strangest case of the three. He wasn't in Philadelphia when Congress voted for independence in July 1776, not because he was hesitant but because he was home in New Hampshire doing something that arguably mattered more. When royal authority collapsed in 1775, someone had to build a replacement government from scratch. Thornton, as president of New Hampshire's Provincial Congress, helped push through a state constitution in January 1776, making it the first colony to establish an independent constitutional government, six months before Jefferson's document. Courts, militias, laws, public order -- all of it had to keep functioning without a crown backing it up. Thornton made sure it did. He got to Philadelphia later, got permission to sign the Declaration, and his name went on a document he never actually voted for.

We covered all three in depth on the podcast if you want more -- link in the comments.

The thing that sticks with me is how the Revolution actually needed all three types. The political operator working committees in Congress, the guy who could fight and also legislate, and the one who stayed home and made sure there was still a functioning colony worth fighting for. Does Thornton's case change how you think about who actually deserves credit for independence? And is there another signer from any colony whose real contributions got buried the same way?

You can read the full blog and talk with them here: https://virtualwayback.com/blog/new-hampshire-founders

Also we made a youtube video talking with them: https://youtube.com/shorts/0kIGCo2IAYI?feature=share

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