The Glorious 56

I dream that music would be put to exalted words by or about beau ideals to regenerate interest in their principles. I conceptualized The Pursuit of Happiness Album. This is the 4th song:

The Glorious 56

Do you remember the Glorious 56?
Do you honor what they did?
D’you care to sing and ponder?
The Declaration of Independence, every Signer?

From Delaware: Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and George Read.
From Pennsylvania: George Clymer, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, John Morton,
James Smith, George Taylor, George Ross, Benjamin Franklin, and James Wilson.

From Massachusetts: Elbridge Gerry, Robert Treat Paine, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
And the President of the Second Continental Congress –
He attended Harvard College for a business education
And graduated at age 17: Mr. John Hancock.

From New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, and Matthew Thornton.

From Rhode Island: William Ellery attended Harvard College and graduated at age 15.
During the war, he saw his property and home looted and burned to the ground.
Stephen Hopkins, self-educated, age around 69, and with cerebral palsy,
Signed the Declaration of Independence with a shaking pen
But declared: ‘My hand trembles, but my heart does not.’

From New York: The homes, estates, and fortunes of Francis Lewis,
William Floyd, and Lewis Morris were plundered.
Philips Livingston’s great holdings were confiscated.

From Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.

From Virginia: George Wythe, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton,
Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson…
Richard Henry Lee remarked on July 4, 1776:
“Let this most happy day give birth to the American Republic.
Let her arise not to devastate and conquer
But to re-establish the reign of peace and the laws….
The names of the American legislators will be placed, by posterity,
At the side of … all those whose memory has been
And will be forever dear to virtuous men and good citizens.”
Do you remember the other Virginian?
Who ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire?
Do you know the reason for the uncommon order?
General Cornwallis had his headquarters
At the home of Thomas Nelson Jr.
At the battle of Yorktown,
He ordered his own home destroyed by cannon fire.

From North Carolina: Joseph Hewes, John Penn, and William Hooper.

From South Carolina: Thomas Lynch Jr.,
1st South Carolina Regiment Company Commander,
Fell ill shortly after becoming a Declaration Signer.
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr. and Arthur Middleton
Lost their vast landholdings and estates while in prison.
As Signers of the Declaration of Independence
They were singled out for indignities and brutal treatment.

From New Jersey: Francis Hopkinson.
John Hart’s farm was raided by British and Hessian troops.
Hunted down, the elderly Mr. Hart hid in the Sourland Mountains.
Richard Stockton was brutally beaten upon capture.
He was starved and subjected to freezing cold weather.
After nearly six weeks of brutal treatment,
He was released, his health ruined.
His belongings, crops, and livestock taken or destroyed,
His library, one of the finest in the colonies, was burned.
The British nearly destroyed the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton,
Rebuilt at great personal and financial difficulty by Dr. John Witherspoon.
To an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence,
Dr. Witherspoon replied that it “was not only ripe for the measure,
But in danger of rotting for the want of it.”
Dragooned to renounce his signature on the Declaration of Independence
For the release of his two sons, officers in the Continental Army,
Captured and tortured by the British:
Abraham Clark refused, honoring his country and solemn pledge:
“We mutually pledge to each other
Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

From Connecticut: Oliver Wolcott, Roger Sherman,
William Williams, and Samuel Huntington.
From Maryland: Charles Carroll, Samuel Chase,
William Paca, and Thomas Stone.

Uncommon thinkers and sons of Liberty
They risked life, fortune, and family.
Do you honor what they did?
Do you remember the Glorious 56?