Charles Carroll of Carrollton - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

“To obtain religious as well as civil liberty, I entered zealously into the Revolution.… God grant that this religious liberty may be preserved in these States, to the end of time, and that all who believe in the religion of Christ may practice the leading principle of charity, the basis of every virtue.”

"Faith of Our Fathers" by Matthew Spalding in Crisis (May 1996), and Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence by Charles A. Goodrich (H. E. Robins, 1849).

“Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime & pure, [and] which denounces against the wicked eternal misery, and [which] insured to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.”

(Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers, 1907), p. 475. In a letter from Charles Carroll to James McHenry of November 4, 1800.)

“Why keep alive the question of slavery? It is admitted by all to be a great evil.”

Kate Mason Rowland, Life and Correspondence of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (New York & London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1898), Vol. II, p. 321, to Robert Goodloe Harper, April 23, 1820. In Barton, p. 3.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Carroll of Carrollton (September 19, 1737–November 14, 1832) was a lawyer and politician from Maryland who was a delegate to the Continental Congress and later a United States Senator. He was the last surviving and only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Carter Braxton - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

I have not found any yet...

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carter Braxton (September 16, 1736–October 10, 1797), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and a representative of Virginia.

He was born on Newington Plantation in King and Queen County, Virginia and educated at the College of William and Mary. He married at age 19, but his wife died two years later, and he journeyed to England for two years. He returned in 1760, marrying again, and represented King William County in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He joined the patriot's Committee of Safety in Virginia in 1774 and represented his county in the Virginia Convention. When Peyton Randolph died in 1775, Braxton was appointed to take his place in the Continental Congress. He served in the Congress from February of 1776 until August, when Virginia reduced its delegation to five members. Afterwards he returned to the House of Burgesses, and later served on the State's Executive Council.

Josiah Bartlett - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

I have not found any yet.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josiah Bartlett (November 21, 1729–May 19, 1795), was an American physician and statesman who, as a delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire, signed the Declaration of Independence. He was later Chief Justice of New Hampshire's Supreme Court and Governor of the state.

Like many prominent men in small communities, Bartlett became active in the political affairs of Kingston, and in 1765 he was elected to the colonial assembly. In 1767 he became the colonel of his county's militia and Governor John Wentworth appointed him justice of the peace. As the Revolution neared, his Whig policies brought him into opposition with the Royal Governor, John Wentworth.

In 1774, Bartlett joined the Assembly's Committee of Correspondence and began his work with the revolutionary leaders of the other 12 colonies. Later that year, when Wentorth dismissed, or prorogued, the Assembly, Josiah was elected to its revolutionary (and illegal) successor, the Provincial Assembly. He also suffered the loss of his home by fire, alleged to have been set by opposition Tories. He moved his family out to the farmhouse and began rebuilding immediately. When the assembly appointed Bartlett and John Pickering as delegates to the Continental Congress, he was forced to decline because had to attend to his family, but remained active in New Hampshire's affairs. In one of Governor Wentworth's last acts before being expelled from New Hampshire in 1775, he revoked Bartlett's commissions as Justice, Militia Colonel, and Assemblyman.

Bartlett was selected as a delegate again in 1775, and attended that session as well as the meetings 1776. Indeed, for a time in late 1775 and early 1776 he was the only delegate attending from New Hampshire. Much of the work of the Congress was carried out in Committees. The most important of these had a delegate from each state, which meant that Bartlett served on all of them, including those of Safety, Secrecy, Munitions, Marine, and Civil Government. His attention to detail and hard work in these committees made him one of the most influential members in the Congress, even though he was seldom active in debates before the full congress.

Samuel Adams - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"And as it is our duty to extend our wishes to the happiness of the great Family of Man, I concede we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the World--That the rod of tyrants may be broken into pieces, and the oppressed made Free--That wars may cease in all the Earth, and that the confusions that are and have been among the Nations may be overruled for the promoting and speedily bringing on that holy and happy period, when the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and all the people willingly bow to the Sceptre of Him who is the Prince of Peace."

William V. Wells, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, Vol III, p.378, 366.

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“First of all, I . . . rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.”

Quote reported by David Barton - Last will and testament – http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=58

“The Rights of the Colonists as Christians. These may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.”

Samuel Adams, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, William V. Wells, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1865), Vol. I, p. 504.

“In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator.”

Samuel Adams, Writings of Samuel Adams 356 (Harry Alonzo Cushing, ed., 1908) (to the Legislature of Massachusetts on January 17, 1794).

“There is One above us who will take exemplary vengeance for every insult upon His majesty. You know that the cause of America is just. You know that she contends for that freedom to which all men are entitled — that she contends against oppression, rapine, and more than savage barbarity. The blood of the innocent is upon your hands, and all the waters of the ocean will not wash it away. We again make our solemn appeal to the God of heaven to decide between you and us. And we pray that, in the doubtful scale of battle, we may be successful as we have justice on our side, and that the merciful Savior of the world may forgive our oppressors.”

Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), Vol. IV, p. 38, to the Earl of Carlisle and Others on July 16, 1778.

“We, therefore, the Congress of the United States of America, do solemnly declare and proclaim that. . . . [w]e appeal to the God who searcheth the hearts of men for the rectitude of our intentions; and in His holy presence declare that, as we are not moved by any light or hasty suggestions of anger or revenge, so through every possible change of fortune we will adhere to this our determination.”

Samuel Adams, Writings, Vol. IV, p. 86, “Manifesto of the Continental Congress” on October 30, 1778.

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual--or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), Vol. IV, p. 256, in the Boston Gazette on April 16, 1781.

“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

(William V. Wells, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1865), Vol. I, p. 22, quoting from a political essay by Samuel Adams published in The Public Advertiser, 1749.)

“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”

Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905), Vol. IV, p. 124.

“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men.”

Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), Vol. III, p. 236-237, to James Warren on November 4, 1775.

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel Adams (September 27, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American revolutionary and organizer of the Boston Tea Party. He was also one of the signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence (1776).

Born to a wealthy Boston family, Adams attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College where he received a bachelor's degree in 1740 and a Master of Arts degree in 1743; prophetically, the subject of his master's thesis was "Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved."