William Ellery - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"...The Road to Liberty, Like the Road to Heaven is strewed with Thorns. Virtue lives in Exertion. But thank Providence, altho’ our Northern Army hath been unsuccessful, our Southern Forces under Gen. Lee have been successful."

William Ellery to Ezra Stiles; July 20, 1776

Picture courtesy of ushistory.org

"I don't hear a word about amendments. Money is indeed the first and most important object. Neither civil nor military wheels can turn easily without it. But it had seemed to me that the Delegates from those States which had ordered them to move and urge amendments, would have started them as soon as a Congress was formed. I am glad that a matter of much greater consequence has been brought upon the tapis; and perhaps it would not be amiss to try whether the new government would not do without any alteration."

"It is probable whenever amendments are proposed some degree of ill humour may take place of that harmony which I am told, prevails, and I hope will prevail in Congress."

William Ellery to Benjamin Huntington, 25 April 1789, Benjamin Huntington Papers, Rhode Island State Archives.

Tidbits

William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, but in no face was he able to discern real fear.

In December 1776, during three days of British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island, Ellery's house was burned, and all his property destroyed.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Ellery (December 22, 1727–February 15, 1820), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Rhode Island.

He was born at Newport, Rhode Island, and graduated Harvard College at the age of 15. He worked successively as a merchant, a customs collector, and Clerk of the Rhode Island General Assembly. He started the practice of law in 1770. He was active in the Rhode Island Sons of Liberty, and replaced Samuel Ward, who had died, in the Continental Congress in 1776, and served on the Marine committee and the committee for foreign relations. He became judge of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. By 1785 he had become an abolitionist. He was the first customs collector of the port of Newport under the Constitution, serving there until his death.