I get very angry when ignorant or ill-informed people call the Founders old white men. They were mostly young, and they gave all for this country and the freedom we enjoy today. And the Constitution is not an old piece of parchment. It has protected us for 250 years.
Rush Limbaugh’s father, Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., was a well-regarded lawyer and a highly esteemed orator of his day. He talked about the Founders and wrote a piece that his son often read on the air, titled “The Price They Paid.” You can read it here.
This is one of the powerful excerpts about the sacrifices they made.
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 are 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 that 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 confinement 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.”
Never give up!
The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence varied widely in age, with an average age of about 44. The youngest signers were Edward Rutledge and Thomas Lynch Jr., both just 26 years old. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest, at 70.
The ages of several notable Founding Fathers in 1776 are as follows:
- Thomas Jefferson: 33
- John Adams: 40
- John Hancock: 40
- George Washington: 44 (Note: Washington did not sign, as he was commanding forces in New York)
- Benjamin Franklin: 70
- James Madison: 25 (Did not sign the Declaration, but was a key framer)
- Alexander Hamilton: 21 (Did not sign the Declaration)
Now our young people are being turned into angry communists. Pray!
