The Signing Of The Declaration Of Independence
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INDEPENDENCE DAY
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Good Stories For Great Holidays
BY H. A. GUERBER [4]
[Footnote 4: From The Story of the Thirteen Colonies. Copyright, 1898,
by H. A. Guerber. American Book Company, publishers.]
John Hancock, President of Congress, was the first to sign the
Declaration of Independence, writing his name in large, plain letters,
and saying:--
"There! John Bull can read my name without spectacles. Now let him
double the price on my head, for this is my defiance."
Then he turned to the other members, and solemnly declared:--
"We must be unanimous. There must be no pulling different ways. We must
all hang together."
"Yes," said Franklin, quaintly: "we must all hang together, or most
assuredly we shall all hang separately."
We are told that Charles Carroll, thinking that his writing looked
shaky, added the words, "of Carrollton," so that the king should not be
able to make any mistake as to whose name stood there.