“It was treason against the home government, yet perfect allegiance to the law of right.”

At a meeting of the Continental Congress in July 1776, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Declaration of Independence was signed.

From across the Thirteen Colonies, fifty-six men — including two future presidents — put their names to a document formally explaining why they had voted to declare independence from Great Britain.

It was an act that would have an irreversible effect on America, and history.

Although this event has given rise to many stories and legends with the passage of time, there is little doubting the reverence with which the signers of the Declaration are held.

In his 1848 work, B. J. Lossing presents a collection of brief sketches of “the chief events in the lives of the men who stood sponsors at the baptism in blood of our Infant Republic.”

Those men include: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams as well as many more in this fascinating history of The Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891) was a prolific and popular American historian, authoring more than forty books in his lifetime. He was best known for his works on the American Revolution and American Civil War.

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