Historic figure promotes knowledge of the U.S. Constitution

Friday, November 13, 2009

By PATTY RICE GROTH
Inquirer Reporter
prgroth@galioninquirer.com

The Rev. Kenneth Hammontree, in the guise of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, addressed a gathering of students, grandparents and veterans at St. Joseph School’s annual luncheon and celebration. The combined Veterans Day and Grandparents Day event was held in the activity center on North Liberty Street.

Jefferson brought with him copies of this country’s Declaration of Independence and Constitution, encouraging everyone to take a copy to read. He said it was important for Americans to know what the Constitution says in order to protect it. Noting the veterans participating in the event, Jefferson thanked them for continuing the fight begun when the nation declared its independence more than 223 years ago.

Jefferson went on to speak of the cost of having signed the Declaration in 1776. Many of them served in the military defending its newly-claimed rights just as modern-day veterans and service people do today.

Seventeen of the signers served in the military during the American Revolution. Thomas Nelson was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and then commanded Virginia military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William Whipple served with the New Hampshire militia and was one of the commanding officers in the decisive Saratoga campaign. Oliver Wolcott led the Connecticut regiments sent for the defense of New York and commanded a brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of General Burgoyne. Caesar Rodney was a Major General in the Delaware militia and John Hancock was the same in the Massachusetts militia.

Captains Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton (South Carolina) were all captured by the British at the Battle of Charleston in 1780; Colonel George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. Richard Stockton of New Jersey never recovered from his incarceration at the hands of British loyalists and died in 1781.

Colonel Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was “hunted like a fox by the enemy — compelled to remove my family five times in a few months, and at last fixed them in a little log house on the banks of the Susquehanna … and they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians.” Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by the British during the war. The son of John Witherspoon, a major in the New Jersey Brigade, was killed at the Battle of Germantown.

Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis’s New York home was destroyed and his wife was taken prisoner. John Hart’s farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey, and he died while fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Thomas Nelson (both of Virginia) lent large sums of their personal fortunes to support the war effort, but were never repaid.

Signers lost their lives, families, homes and fortunes as a result of their part in the American Revolution. Some who survived the war became state governors; others became presidents of the new country.

Jefferson exhorted his audience to continue to assure government today continues to represent the people they are taxing.