Actually, both its authorship and historical accuracy were challenged in
Wednesday's Ann Landers column.
Louise
>===== Original Message From "John W. Burgeson" <burgy@compuserve.com> =====
>The following message is floating around this week. It comes from Rush
Limbaugh.
>I think it is hokum; is there a reputable source which can be accessed
>to show it is either generally true or so much muck?
>
>Burgy
>---------- Forwarded Message ----------
>
>"Our Lives, Our Fortunes,
>Our Sacred Honor"
>The Americans who Risked Everything The Fate of
>the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
>by Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr.
>
>Preface
> I can think of no better way to celebrate the Fourth of July, and this
>nation's great legacy, than by publishing a speech written by my father. He
>delivered the oft-requested address locally a number of times, but it has
>never before appeared in print. My dad was renowned for his oratory and for
>his original mind; this speech is, I think, a superb demonstration of both.
> I will always be grateful to him for instilling in me a passion for the
>ideas and lives of America's Founders, as well as a deep appreciation for the
>inspirational power of words ... which you will see evidenced here:
>
>(snipped a lot to get to the part I question)
>
>"... the British marked down every member
>of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became
>the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had
>narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds
>suffered.
> Francis Lewis, New York delegate, saw his home plundered and his estates,
>in what is now Harlem, completely destroyed by British soldiers. Mrs. Lewis
>was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later
>exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died
>from the effects of her abuse.
> William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his
>wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived
>as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home, they found
>a devastated ruin.
> Phillips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated
>and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still
>working in Congress for the cause.
> Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops,
>and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.
> John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see
>his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods.
> While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked
>his Homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across
>the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to
>sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children
>taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without
>ever finding his family.
> Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey,
>later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and
>billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college
>library in the country.
> Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed
>back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The
>family found refuge with friends, but a sympathizer betrayed them. Judge
>Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the
>arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved.
> Congress finally arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined.
> The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the
>British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live
>to see the triumph of the revolution. His family was forced to live off
>charity.
> Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met
>Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised
>arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the
>Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his
>own fortune and credit almost dry.
> George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their
>home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the
>Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.
> Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to
>Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow
escapes.
> John Morton, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a
>strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence,
>most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was
>a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When
>he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: "Tell them that they
>will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to
>have been the most glorious service that I rendered to my country."
> William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned
>to the ground. Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health
>broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in
>the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and
>on the voyage he and his young bride were drowned at sea.
> Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other
>three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of
>Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida,
>where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end
>of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their
>large land holdings and estates.
> Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the
>Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in
>Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by
>piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's
>palatial home. While American cannonballs were making shambles of the town,
>the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to
>the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied,
>"Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired
>on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice
>was not quite over. He had raised two million dollars for the Revolutionary
>cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer
>peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was
>forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later
>at the age of 50.
>
>Lives, Fortunes and Honor
> Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of
>wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in
>each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire
>families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All
>were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their
>homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost
>everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged
>word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create, is
>still intact.
> And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark. He gave two
>sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and
>sent to the infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York harbor known as
>the hell ship "Jersey," where 11,000 American captives were to die. The
>younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father.
> One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight,
>with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding
>to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would
>recant and come out for the King and parliament. The utter despair in this
>man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us
>down through 200 years with his answer: "No."
> The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence proved by their every
>deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent
>curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a
>firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to
>each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
>
>(snipped some more)
>
>(c) Copyright 1996 The Limbaugh Letter. Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr. is the late
>father of conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. This speech was
>published in the July, 1996 issue of "The Limbaugh Letter". Available from
>http://www.rushlimbaugh.com or
> http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/read.foundersfates.html.
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