The Presbyterian Signers of the Declaration of Independence

 By Kevin DeYoung - Posted at Clearly Reformed:

Their belief in the liberty of conscience came to be expressed in America as a zeal for new levels of religious freedom and a passion that the state not interfere in the least with the affairs of the church.

Americans have always revered the Declaration of Independence. It marks the beginning of the United States as an independent nation, and its phrases and principles are some of the most famous in the world. There is no text (other than the Bible) that is more important to Americans than the Declaration, and there may be no more important political document ever written.

The almost mythical status the Declaration holds for many Americans is not the product of some twentieth-century PR spin either. From the beginning, whether from prescience or hubris, Americans believed that the founding of their new nation was an act of profound historical significance. That’s why several men made an effort to sign the Declaration even though they weren’t present for its adoption on July 4 (including Robert Morris, who deliberately stayed away on July 4 because he was a “no” vote but then decided to sign the statement anyway once it had been approved). That’s why starting in 1777, Americans began celebrating July 4 with parades and fireworks and speeches (and have been doing so ever since). That’s why, within 50 years of the Declaration, a comprehensive set of biographies—totaling thousands of pages over nine volumes—was published to commemorate the lives of the 56 signers (plus a handful of other important people like George Washington). That’s why Jonathan Trumbull’s painting of the Second Continental Congress, embellishments and all, may be the most recognizable American painting and why it graces the back of the $2 bill. Americans may not know the names of many of the 56 signers, but they believe that the simple fact that they signed the Declaration gives them a place of honor in our national lore.

So who were these men? Much is known about a few of them—Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson—and the signature of one man, John Hancock, has become another word for signature itself. But for all their general notoriety as a corporate body, the signers as individuals are now largely unknown. I’d like to remedy that ignorance, just a little, by highlighting one group of signers—a group that is especially important to me as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. I want to look at the twelve Presbyterian signers of the Declaration of Independence, saying a little bit about who they were and then concluding with a few reflections on why Presbyterians were so firmly aligned with the Patriot cause in the Revolution.

A Dozen Presbyterians

Determining the religious affiliation for each signer is not an exact science. The men who gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 were religiously diverse, though all were various shades of Christian (55 Protestants and one Catholic). Many, perhaps most, were sincere, orthodox Christians (even if not terribly fussy about their theology). Some of the most famous signers were Unitarians or Deists. The vast majority of the delegates can be classified as Anglicans, Congregationalists, or Presbyterians. Although historians don’t agree on how many signers should be placed in each category, a good case can be made that twelve of them were Presbyterian: one from New Hampshire, two from New York, four from Pennsylvania, four from New Jersey, and one from Delaware. We will work our way through the list, moving down the colonies from north to south, citing just the basic facts about each man and highlighting what is known about his connection to Presbyterianism.

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