Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1880 — Signers of the Declaration. [ARTICLE]

Signers of the Declaration.

One of the most remarkable circumstances attending the fortunes of the signers of tbe Declaration of Independence was the tranquillity in which their lives were passed, and the late period to which they were protracted. Most of them lived to a good old age, crowned with civil honors bestowed by the gratitude of the republic, and some of them perished by the mere decay of the powers of nature. Of the fifty-six who affixed their signatures to that document, twenty-seven lived to an age exceeding 70 years, and forty to an age of 60. Only two of the whole number, Gwinnett, of Georgia, wlio fell in a duel iu his 45tli year, and Lynch, of South Carolina, who was shipwrecked in his 60th, died a violent death. Twentyone lived to the beginning of the present century, and three were permitted to see the great experiment of a representative confederacy confirmed by the events of fifty years. Of all the delegates from New York and New England, only one, Whipple, of New Hampshire, died at an earlier age than 60. Never in the world had the leaders in any bold and grand,political movement more reason to congratulate themselves and their country on the issue. The exertions and perils of their manhood were succeeded by a peaceful, honored and ripe old age, in which they witness the happy result of the institutions they had aided in devising, and they were gathered in their graves amid the regrets of the generation which was in its cradle when they laid the foundation of the republic.