The signing of the Declaration of Independence is often seen as a victory, a vindication of a free people’s “self-evident” rights in the face of an oppressive government. Yet nothing was certain to the 56 men who risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor by putting their names to parchment on that fateful July day.
The occasion was not celebratory. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician who signed the Declaration, recalled in a famous 1811 letter “the pensive and awful silence which pervaded” the final roll call as the signers approved “what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants.”
It’s impossible to know exactly how that felt. But the best way to get a feel for it is to stand in the very room where the Revolution was declared: Independence Hall in downtown Philadelphia.
Even amid the inevitable tourists and schoolchildren, there is a sense of seriousness, and one of uncertainty and trepidation. Underlying it all is a question that remains relevant: If your government turned authoritarian and disrespected fundamental rights, what would you do?
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