America at 250: What the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Sacrificed

When 56 men pledged “our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” 250 years ago, none forfeited the first or last. But many lost great fortunes — and sacrificed more besides.

“The signers of the Declaration everywhere were marked for vengeance,” Benson John Lossing noted in 1848’s Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

About the Author

Daniel J. Flynn

Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer, is an American Spectator senior editor, visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and YouTuber @RightWingWilderness.

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When 56 men pledged “our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” 250 years ago, none forfeited the first or last. But many lost great fortunes — and sacrificed more besides.

“The signers of the Declaration everywhere were marked for vengeance,” Benson John Lossing noted in 1848’s Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.