did graver responsibility rest on a young man than the preparation of
that immortal paper, and never was the duty more nobly fulfilled. In
the original draft of the declaration there was the allegation that the
king "had prostituted his negative by suppressing every legislative
attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce in human
beings." This was struck out, as Mr. Jefferson tells us, in
"complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, not without tenderness to
Northern Brethren who held slaves." Time forbids my calling over the
roll of these noble patriots who signed their names to our Magna Charta.
There is John Adams, of whom Jefferson said, "He was our Colossus on
that floor, and spoke with such power as to move us from our seats."
Benjamin Franklin, printer philosopher and statesman. Roger Sherman, of
whom John Adams said, "He is honest as an angel and firm as Mount
Atlas." Charles Carroll, who, when a member said, "Oh, Carroll, you
will get off, there are so many Carrolls," stepped back to the desk and
wrote after his name, "of Carrollton." John Hancock, who, when elected
speaker, Benjamin Harrison had playfully seated in the speaker's chair
and said, "We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her, by
making a Massachusetts man our president, whom she has by proclamation
excluded from pardon." A friend said to John Hancock, "You have signed
your name large." "Yes," he replied, "I wish John Bull to read it
without spectacles." Robert Morris, the financier and treasurer of the
Revolution. Elbridge Gerry, the youngest member, the friend of Gen.
Warren, to whom Warren had said the night before the battle of Bunker
Hill, "It is sweet to die for our country." What a roll of names! the
silver-tongued Rutledge, brave Stockton, wise Rush, Lee--fifty-five noble
names, not one of whom who did not know that, as one member said, "If we
do not hang together, we shall hang separately." It was not timidity
which made any of the delegates hesitate to take the irrevocable step.
All the associations of their lives, all the traditions and memories of