Morrill Middle School - Pawprints Yearbook (San Jose, CA)

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Se lf. l S ess , A .xcg .wx ax Q00 ep caring A-. 3 There is one single word that inspires hope and light and dreams...freedom. The documented fate of the heroic fifty-six who signed the Declaration of Independence. Of the fiftyrsix few were long to Survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes destroyed by the enemy. Nine of the 56 died in the war from its hardships and bullets. Wealthy planter and trader Carter Braxton of Virginia saw his ships swept from the sea in battles. To pay his debts he sold his home and all his properties. He died in rags. Thomas McKean of Delaware was so harrassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times in five months. He served in Congress without pay, his family in poverty and hiding. And Thomas Nelson, Jr. raised two million dollars on his own signature to provision our allies, the French fleet. After the war he wiped out his entire estate paying back the loans. He was never reimbursed by his government. He died bankrupt and was buried in an unmarked grave. Thomas Nelson, Jr. pledged his life, his fortune, his sacred honor. John Hart was driven from his dying wife's bedside. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves and returned home after the war to find his wife dead, his children gone and his property worthless. He died a few weeks later of exhaustion and a broken heart. John Hancock, one of the wealthiest men in New England, stood outside Boston one terrible night of the war and said, uBurn Boston, though it makes John Hancock a beggar, burnln He too lived up to the pledge. I don't know what impression you had of the men who met that hot summer in Philadelphia, but I think its important that we remember this about them. They were not poor men or wild-eyed pirates. They were basically rich men who enjoyed ease and luxury in their personal living. They were not hungry men-they were wealthy and prosperous. But they considered liberty so much more important than security that they pledged their lives, Their fortunes and their sacred honor. They fulfilled the pledge...they paid the price... and freedom was born!!! This country was founded by people who pdaced freedom and country above self. It is being destroyed by those who place self above country, and Nsecuritgu above freedom. 7, V

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