William Floyd - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"Have you heard anything from my family? [...] Have any of our friends got off the Island with their families, or what must they submit to? Despotism or destruction, I fear, is their fate."

www.newsday.com - Long Island History: They Signed for Independence

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Floyd (December 17, 1734–August 4, 1821), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New York.

He was born in Brookhaven, Long Island, New York, and took over the family farm when his father died. He was a member of the Suffolk County Militia in the early conflict with England, becoming major general. He was chosen to represent New York in the first Continental Congress in 1774-1776. In 1789 he was elected to the U.S. Congress under the new Constitution. He returned to the New York state Senate in 1808.

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.

George Clymer - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"Among the expected glories of the Constitution, next to the abolition of Slavery was that of Rum, but molasses has shipwrecked New England virtue and we must look to a day still many distant for the promised blessing-- Some hope there is however that a Congressional excise will reach the distillations"

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Quote Explanation

The relationship between molasses, rum and slaves is know as the Triangle Trade. Between 1505 and 1888, millions of Africans were enslaved and transported to the New World for profit. Sugar cane, harvested by slaves, was boiled down to make molasses. The molasses was used to make rum. The rum was traded in the acquisition of more slaves. It was George Clymer's hope that congressional efforts would bring an end to this practice.
See the following for more details: Slavery and Sugar: Molasses to Rum to Slaves

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Clymer (March 16, 1739–January 23, 1813) was an American politician and Founding Father. He was one of the first Patriots to advocate complete independence from Great Britain and was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence as a Pennsylvania representative. He attended the Continental Congress and served in political office until the end of his life.

Abraham Clark - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

"Nothing short of the Almighty Power of God can Save us-it is not in our Numbers, our Union, or our Valour that I dare trust."

http://rss.brainydictionary.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_clark.html

"Our fates are in the hands of An Almighty God, to whom I can with pleasure confide my own; he can save us, or destroy us; his Councils are fixed and cannot be disappointed, and all his designs will be Accomplished."

http://rss.brainydictionary.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_clark.html

Picture courtesy of ushistory.org

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abraham Clark (February 15, 1725 – September 15, 1794) was an American politician and Revolutionary War figure. He was delegate for New Jersey to the Continental Congress where he signed the Declaration of Independence and later served in the U.S. House.

Abraham was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was a surveyor and lawyer, and was clerk of the Provincial Assembly. Later he became High Sheriff of Essex County and in 1775 was elected to the Provincial Congress. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety.

Early in 1776, the New Jersey delegation to the Continental Congress was opposed to independence from Great Britain. When the issue became most important, the state convention replaced all their delegates with men favoring the separation. On June 21, they appointed Clark, along with John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, and John Witherspoon as new delegates. They arrived in Philadelphia on June 28 and signed the Declaration of Independence in early July.

Clark remained in the Continental Congress through 1778. New Jersey returned him twice more, from 1780 to 1783 and from 1786 to 1788. Clark retired before the state's Constitutional Convention in 1794. Clark Township in Union County is named for him.

Samuel Chase - Signer of the Declaration

Quotes

In the case of Runkel v. Winemiller, 1799, Justice Chase gave the courts opinion:

"Religion is of general and public concern, and on its support depend, in great measure, the peace and good order of government, the safety and happiness of the people."

"By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty."

Runkel v. Winemiller, 4 Harris & McHenry 276,288 (Sup. Ct. Md. 1799).

Bio

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel Chase (April 17, 1741–June 19, 1811), was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland. He was well-known as a Federalist-partisan.

Samuel was the son of the Rev. Thomas Chase, an Episcopal priest who had immigrated to Somerset County, Maryland. In 1743 the family moved to Baltimore where his father took up a new pulpit. Samuel was educated at home until he was eighteen when he left for Annapolis to read law. He was admitted to the bar in 1761 and started a law practice in Annapolis.

In 1774 he represented Maryland at the Continental Congress, and was re-elected in 1775, serving until 1778. In 1786 Chase moved to Baltimore, which remained his home for the rest of his life. That same year he was appointed chief justice of the District Criminal Court in Baltimore, and then became Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court. In 1796 he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving there until his death.

Impeachment Proceedings
Chase was served with 6 articles of impeachment by the House of Representatives in late 1804, explicitly over Chase's handling of the trial of John Fries. Two more articles would later be added. The Jeffersonian Republican-controlled United States Senate began an impeachment trial against Justice Chase in early 1805. He was charged with political bias, but was acquitted by the Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805. To this day, he remains the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached.