The Declaration was returned to Washington, D.C., in 1944.Note: The following text is a transcription of the Stone Engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original. On December 26 and 27, accompanied by Secret Service agents, it traveled by train to Louisville, Kentucky, where a cavalry troop of the 13th Armored Division escorted it to Fort Knox. All told, 150 pounds of protective gear surrounded the parchment. Under the supervision of armed guards, the founding document was packed in a specially designed container, latched with padlocks, sealed with lead and placed in a larger box. On December 23, 1941, just over two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the signed Declaration, together with the Constitution, was removed from public display and prepared for evacuation out of Washington, D.C.
The Declaration of Independence spent World War II in Fort Knox. One of three Dunlap broadsides at the National Archives, the copy remains there to this day.Ĩ. A 26th known Dunlap broadside emerged at the British National Archives in 2009, hidden for centuries in a box of papers captured from American colonists during the Revolutionary War. One of the few surviving copies from the official first printing of the Declaration, it was in excellent condition and sold for $8.1 million in 2000. In 1989, a Philadelphia man found an original Dunlap Broadside hidden in the back of a picture frame he bought at a flea market for $4. Two additional copies of the Declaration of Independence have been found in the last 25 years. Rutledge narrowly beat out fellow South Carolinian Thomas Lynch Jr., just four months his senior, for the title.ħ. The youngest was Edward Rutledge, a lawyer from South Carolina who was only 26 at the time. The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin, 70 years old when he scrawled his name on the parchment. There was a 44-year age difference between the youngest and oldest signers. Button Gwinnett and Robert Morris were born in England, Francis Lewis was born in Wales, James Wilson and John Witherspoon were born in Scotland, George Taylor and Matthew Thornton were born in Ireland and James Smith hailed from Northern Ireland.Ħ. While the majority of the members of the Second Continental Congress were native-born Americans, eight of the men voting for independence from Britain were born in the United Kingdom. Eight of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were born in the U.K. READ MORE: 8 Founding Fathers and How They Helped Shape the NationĤ. The statue was subsequently melted down and shaped into more than 42,000 musket balls for the fledgling American army. A raucous crowd cheered the inspiring words, and later that day tore down a nearby statue of George III. George Washington, commander of the Continental forces in New York, read the document aloud in front of City Hall. With hundreds of British naval ships occupying New York Harbor, revolutionary spirit and military tensions were running high. When news of the Declaration of Independence reached New York City, it started a riot.īy July 9, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence had reached New York City. Livingston, never signed at all.) The signed parchment copy now resides at the National Archives in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, alongside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.ģ.
(Two others, John Dickinson and Robert R. Most of the delegates signed on August 2, but several-Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean and Matthew Thornton-signed on a later date. Next, it took two weeks for the Declaration to be “engrossed”-written on parchment in a clear hand. First, New York’s delegates didn’t officially give their support until July 9 because their home assembly hadn’t yet authorized them to vote in favor of independence. Nearly a month would go by, however, before the actual signing of the document took place. On July 4, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, and as a result the date is celebrated as Independence Day. The delegates then spent the next two days debating and revising the language of a statement drafted by Thomas Jefferson. On July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and on the following day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence.
The Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on July 4, 1776.
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