TREASON The Sacrifices of the Men Who Gave Us the Declaration

[Samuel Adams]

Virginia Signer Thomas Nelson, Jr. was the governor of Virginia and Brigadier General of the Virginia militia in the Continental Army.
By mortgaging all of his own property, he personally raised and contributed over $2,000,000 to the war effort.
After the war ended, when he could not repay the loans, he was forced to forfeit all of his property.

He lost everything.

Nelson participated in the last major battle of the revolutionary war at Yorktown, Virginia.
The red coat high command under English General Cornwallis had taken up residence abd headquarters in Nelsons own stately mansion.

When Nelson noticed that his men were firing the cannons on his neighborhood, but in a pattern carefully designed to avoid hitting his mansion, he angrily asked one of the gunners, “why do you spare my house ?”

“Out of respect to you sir”, the gunner replied.

“Give me the canon !!”, Nelson ordered, and he began to direct the firing upon his own house, after which Cornwallis surrendered.



What you got ?


Anyone ready to give up comfort for principle ?

Will be adding to this thread, periodically.

Feel free to join me.

 

[Txkstew]

The Jan 6 people have lost everything. All they did was wave flags and push a few cops. Don't bring a flag to a gun fight.

 

[Dobbin]

SOMEWHERE I have seen online a full description of the future lives of those who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Your descript of Nelson is in the same intellectual furrow, if he was not one of them. Especially for those not connected with the new government, as a group they didn't fare too well.

This last summer Owner threw down a book he had read while on vacation. "Here Dobbin, you might like this."

Washington's Indispensables by O'Donnell.

I made a real mess of it, but being hardback it stood up to the gaff.

O'Donnell closes the book (worthy read) with "the rest of the story" of those from Marblehead, MA. None of these fared well.

Freedom has its price.

Dobbin

 

[Griz3752]

Will be adding to this thread, periodically.

Please do: I've got this book marked & 'watched w/ emails'.

 

[Samuel Adams]

You got it.

John Dickinson, in an editorial published in a Pennsylvania paper, 1768:

“Let these truths be indelibly impressed upon your minds—that we cannot be happy without being free—that we cannot be free without being secure in our property— that we cannot be secure in our property if, without our consent, others may as by right take it away.
Here then, let my countrymen ROUSE themselves, and behold the ruin hanging over their heads.
If they ONCE admit, that Great Britain may lay duties upon her exportations to us, FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEVYING MONEY ON US, ONLY, she then will have nothing to do, but to lay those duties on the articles which she prohibits us to manufacture—and the tragedy of American liberty is finished.”

Later and elsewhere he postulated....

“It is not our duty to leave WEALTH to our children, but it is our duty to leave LIBERTY to them.
We have counted the cost of this contest, and we find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.”

John Dickinson is one of my favorites.

 

[Tristan]

SOMEWHERE I have seen online a full description of the future lives of those who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Your descript of Nelson is in the same intellectual furrow, if he was not one of them. Especially for those not connected with the new government, as a group they didn't fare too well.

This last summer Owner threw down a book he had read while on vacation. "Here Dobbin, you might like this."

Washington's Indispensables by O'Donnell.

I made a real mess of it, but being hardback it stood up to the gaff.

O'Donnell closes the book (worthy read) with "the rest of the story" of those from Marblehead, MA. None of these fared well.

Freedom has its price.

Dobbin

Especially in the face of ascendant or rampant totalitarianism.

 

[dstraito]

Freedom has its price. nod to Dobbin

as does doing nothing when freedoms are persecuted.

 

[CaryC]

7X great grandfather served under Nelson in the 1st VA Dragoons. He was 61. I have his pay stub. At 61 probably not a front line combatant, but maybe a clerk, aide, teamster, blacksmith, cook.

From what I am able to dig up the Dragoon were organized in 1778, and only then for 8 months.

After the war it appears my grandfather settled in what is now Rutherford Co. NC, which if not mistaken is right across the TN border, north of Nashville.

After 1778 that would have been frontier territory.

Said all that for this: Anyone got any info on the 1st VA Dragoons, links books, it would be great to know, thanks.

Got the location of Rutherford Co NC in the wrong place my bad.

 

[Texican]

Freedom has its price.

How many in America are willing to pay the price to remain free?

Texican....

 

[Samuel Adams]

From one, Isaac Barre, a member of the English Parliament, staunchly defending the colonists from his opposite, in Parliament, the very arrogant and presumptuous, Catch Townsend....

“Children planted by your care ?!!

No !!

Your opposition planted them in America.
They fled from your tyranny into her then uncultivated land where they were exposed to almost all the hardship to what human nature is liable and among others, to the savage cruelty of the enemy of the country; people the most subtle and I take it upon me to say the most truly terrible of any people that have ever inherited any part of God‘s earth, and yet actuated by principles of true English liberty, they made all these hardships with pleasure compared with those they suffered at their own country from the hands of those that should have been their friends.

They nourished up by your indulgence ?!!

They grew by your neglect of them.
As soon as you begin to “care” about them, that care is exercised by sending persons to rule over them in one department and another who or perhaps the deputies are some deputy member of this house, sent to spy out their liberty, to misrepresent their actions, to prey upon them;
men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the highest seats of justice; some to my knowledge were glad by going to foreign countries to escape being brought to a bar of justice in their own.

They protected by your arms ?!!

No.

They have nobly taken up arms , in your defense, have exerted their valor, amidst their constant and laborious industry for the defense of a country whose frontier, well drenched in blood, it’s interior parts have yielded all it’s little savings to your enlargement and, believe me, remember I this day told you so, that the same spirit which actuated that people will continue with them still; but prudence forbids me to explain myself further.

God knows I do not at this time to speak for motives of party heat.
What I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart.

However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know more of America the most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country.

The people there are as truly loyal, I believe, as any subject the king has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if they should be violated.
But the subject is too delicate.
I will say no more.”

 

[Samuel Adams]

I posted this link some short time ago, and it fits very well in this thread, too.

It is an in depth history of the men who comprised the English Parliament, through the incredibly turbulent 1600s.

Reading through the accounting, one sees precisely the mentality that our Founders brought with them as they fled England, and exactly why they were so staunchly passionate about liberty.
Also, you will get to meet some of their ideological predecessors, such as Edmund Coke and John Pym, etc.

A truly fascinating (somewhat extensive) read.
I’m calling it too long to post, in its entirety.....

The essay is composed by enumerated points.
I find points 100-105 to be extraordinary.
Start there if you’d like to get an immediate feel for the relevance of the document.

https://famguardian.org/Subjects/Taxes/ChallJurisdiction/Redress.pdf

 

[rhughe13]

My 2nd cousin 6x removed was signer Joseph Hewes. He didn't have a lot of notable information. His wife died and they had no children. Their English name was spelled Hewes. About 2 generations had mixed spellings of Hewes, Hughs and Hughes. Then it mostly became Hughes.

 

[Samuel Adams]

Two German brothers came to America in the mid-1700s.

When the War broke out, they signed on with the Hessians, then switched sides in the midst....

They settled in Pennsylvania, after, then a group split off and came to Illinois.

I showed up a hundred and some years after that,

Now on the maternal side of Pop’s lineage, we have his mother’s paternal grampa born in Germany, 1837.....came to America, had two sons.
One was Gramma’s dad; the other bought the 15.5 acre homestead that I started out with (have added a bit to it, since), for 5 ounces gold, in 1899.

(he also bought the 400 acre patch across the gravel road, to the south, but that’s ‘nother story)

Gramma’s mom, on the other hand, was born in a log cabin that sat two miles north of my location, in 1873.

Her family history is a mystery to me....but she was a celebrity in the local paper, mid 1960’s.... the feature photo with her standing in front of her chicken house, octagon-barreled single shot .22 rifle in one hand....dead coon, by the tail, in the other.

 

[Samuel Adams]

“The English continued their rampage in New York. The redcoats plundered and burned New York Signer Francis Lewis’ home, and carried his wife off as a prisoner. They confined Mrs. Lewis in a filthy barracks, for months.
They refused to give her a bed to lie or sleep on, and they refused to give her a change of clothing. The redcoats treated her with such brutality that they ruined her health, which she was never able to regain.
She died two years later.

Loyalist neighbors took over Signer William Floyd’s home.....stole his farm equipment, livestock and everything of value from his house.
His wife and children escaped, unharmed, but lived in exile the following seven years.

Redcoats took over Philip Livingston’s home and place of business.
He and his family escaped, but never returned to their home.
Livingston died before the War was over.

Redcoats took over Lewis Morris’ home. They destroyed his timber and crops, and drove off his livestock.
He did return to his home seven years later.

When the redcoats drove Washington’s army out of New York, Washington retreated across the river into New Jersey. The redcoats followed, in hot pursuit. The pursuing redcoats chased Wasshington’s army across the entire colony.
They were so close, at times, that Washington’s rear guard could see them.....
Washington's men had so worn out their shoes that many marched barefoot in the snow, leaving a blood trail that was easy for the British to follow.
New Jersey loyalists welcomed the British with open arms, and further helped the redcoats to track down the “traitors” who had signed the Declaration.

 

[CaryC]

Two German brothers came to America in the mid-1700s.

When the War broke out, they signed on with the Hessians, then switched sides in the midst....

They settled in Pennsylvania, after, then a group split off and came to Illinois.

I showed up a hundred and some years after that,

Now on the maternal side of Pop’s lineage, we have his mother’s paternal grampa born in Germany, 1837.....came to America, had two sons.
One was Gramma’s dad; the other bought the 15.5 acre homestead that I started out with (have added a bit to it, since), for 5 ounces gold, in 1899.

(he also bought the 400 acre patch across the gravel road, to the south, but that’s ‘nother story)

Gramma’s mom, on the other hand, was born in a log cabin that sat two miles north of my location, in 1873.

Her family history is a mystery to me....but she was a celebrity in the local paper, mid 1960’s.... the feature photo with her standing in front of her chicken house, octagon-barreled single shot .22 rifle in one hand....dead coon, by the tail, in the other.

That sounds really cool. I like genealogies, and researching them. Learn so much. Just dealing with Grandfathers, in a straight line (you know the further you go back the more of them you have) The first with my surname sailed from London Jan 1st or 2nd on the Bonaventure, 1634. He was 19. He had about 3 brothers and I believe they all fought in the English Civil War in the 1640's, as far as I am able to learn, just dealing with the area they lived, it was nearly 100% backing Cromwell.

He was near the baby of the family, had a younger sister, so even if there was anything to inherit, he was so far down the list probably won't get anything. So set out to stake his claim, at 19. Sailed on a wooden ship, left his family and everything he knew, for a new world. And he survived and had children, and here I am.

Those children fought in the Colonial Indian Wars, The Revolution, The war of 1812, the Civil War, and WWII and they all survived, and here I am. To me that is an amazing history, not just because it is mine, but for anyone's family.

And you know they did because here you are.

Looks like this line will end with my children. They don't have any, and don't plan on having any, which is Ok I don't have a problem with that, but it is sad that our line has come so far, and overcome lot's of obstacles, war, disease, famine, and for it to end, with no one left to inquire as to where they came from.

My grandmother, one of her lines goes back to the founding of the Piast Dynesty the original kings of Poland. Known as Western slavs, and married a baroness of the kingdom of Kyiv, and formed an alliance to fight the eastern slaves across the Dnieper River. Eastern Slavs where in the Donbas region of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Kind of sounds familiar. LOL

 

[Samuel Adams]

Not just interesting or gratifying, CaryC, to have a knowledge of our ancestry.....I’m calling crucial.

I’d hate to venture a guess as to how low the percentage of those “Americans” under 40....who have the first inkling.

Pops was the family historian, and thankfully next younger brother and a cousin rather took over when Pops passed in ‘13.

Younger bro’s wife is a heritage nerd, and knows most of the online sources, so that’s handy....


Now where were we......


“John Hart was one of the five New Jersey Signers. Hart was 65 years old and lived near Trenton on a large farm with several grist mills for making flour from grain. While his wife lay on her deathbed, with him at her side, Hessian troops invaded his property, devastating his farmland and destroying his mills. Hart was forced to flee into the woods (editor’s note: only because Hart had failed to procure an AR and accessories, previous)
This 65 year old patriot was hunted like a dog. He avoided capture by hiding in caves. Returning some time later to his home, broken in health by anxiety and hardship, he found that his wife had died, and that his 13 children were scattered in every direction.

New Jersey Signer Abraham Clark had two sons who served in the Continental Army. The red coats captured both of them. The enemy had no real interest in keeping American prisoners alive, and the red coats could confine American captives on prison ships docked in coastal harbors.
Rarely and poorly fed, being confined on a British prison ship was tantamount to a death sentence, and a fast death, at that.
On the prison ship, “Jersey”, alone, docked on New York harbor, over 11,000 American prisoners of war perished. New York harbor reeked of the odor of death.
Imagine Clark’s horror when he learned that the red coats were keeping his two sons aboard the “Jersey”, and that they were suffering extra special hardships because of their father’s Signature on the Declaration.
The English offered to release Clark’s sons if he would publicly renounce his cause in favor of King and Parliament.

Clark refused the enemy’s offer, and the fate of his sons remains unknown.”


And we sit around and dream of glorious lone wolf feats in a “guerrilla” effort that will never materialize, somehow imagining that such makes us our Predecessors’ sacrificial equals.

Hang your heads in shame, fellow modern “Americans”.

 

[Samuel Adams]

This is as good as any place to interject........

Thomas Jefferson is credited with authoring the Declaration of Independence....among myriad other invaluable works.

Having many times read that Declaration......and, to my shame....having only recently, for the first time ever, completed John Locke’s, “Second Treatise of Government”.....it is crystal clear that Thomas Jefferson was one of, if not the chiefest of, Locke’s most ardent students.

Take that, for what it’s worth.

 

[Old Reliable]

The Price of Freedom


Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?


Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.


Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.


Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?


Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.


Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.


Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.


At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.


Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.


John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.


Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."


They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government! Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid. Remember: freedom is never free!

- Source Unknown

 

[Samuel Adams]

Thank you, OR....

Keep it comin’.

 

[meezy]

My husband's ancestry traces back to the Leffingwells of Norwich, CT. Evidently Christopher Leffingwell provided provisions for Washington and his army. There's a museum we hope to visit one day. I can't find any notable folks in my own family tree, though I do know they were certainly around back then.

 

[Samuel Adams]

New Jersey Signer Richard Stockton was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Fearing capture, he and his wife and children moved out of their own home to hide in the home of a brave and trusted friend, but a loyalist informant betrayed him.
In the middle of the night, redcoats showed up at his friend’s house, dragged him from his bed, brutally beat him, threw him into prison, and nearly starved him to death.
Returning to his real home, the redcoats burned all of his furniture and clothing, and his library collection of the finest books, and stile his horses and family silverware. He died a short time later, before the war ended.

 

[1-12020]

Freedom has its price.
How many in America are willing to pay the price to remain free?
Texican....

It's quite difficult to even finds friends who will take the pain with you. Who are willing to sacrifice... even time, let alone finiances. But to have good friends of honor one has to be a good friend of honor. It's sad when very few will reciprocate love and honor. I long for a relationship such as David and Jonathan.

 

[1-12020]

It's quite difficult to even finds friends who will take the pain with you. Who are willing to sacrifice... even time, let alone finiances. But to have good friends of honor one has to be a good friend of honor. It's sad when very few will reciprocate love and honor. I long for a relationship such as David and Jonathan.

I was thinking about my post. I'm going to try harder and to be that Johnathan seasoned with that good stuff of David.
What a crazy world we are in.