They Signed for Us

This PDF is about the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Very timely on this Fourth of July.  They Signed for Us  by  Merle Sinclair  and  Annabel Douglas McArthur http://plimages.blob.core.windows.net/utility/TheySignedForUs.pdf  ALMOST EVERY CITIZEN of the United States knows about the Declaration of Independence, the greatest statement of democratic rights and principles in history. Curious, then, is the fact that most of us freedom-blest Americans cannot name half a dozen of the fifty-six patriots who signed the Declaration in Philadelphia that eventful summer of 1776. How many Signers can you name? “I thought I had remembered nine,” ruefully confessed a man with a Ph.D. degree, who holds an important position with our government. “But when I checked, I found only six were right.” The proprietor of a bookstore said she would have a hard time naming any besides George Washington and Patrick Henry. She was chagrined to learn that neither Washington or Henry signed. Who were the Signers? The least we, their beneficiaries, can do is learn their names. The highest tribute we can pay these men is to cherish the freedom for which they risked their lives and fortunes and to defend that freedom against every threat. What sort of men were the patriots who risked a hangman’s noose? What consequences did they suffer as a result of their bold and hazardous act? To answer these questions, and to acknowledge a debt which we, in common with our fellow Americans, owe the sturdy heroes of ’76, we have written 'They Signed for Us'. Merle Sinclair Annabel Douglas McArthur