North Carolina Mason
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the Mother country, not all did, and as a result the members of Congress spent countless hours, weeks and months debating and resolving as to what direction the colonies should take. Initially talking openly of independence was kept quite "hush hush." However, when a Royal decree from King George was read to the members of the Congress, there was little doubt of their fate if the quest for independence failed: "a traitor's death." Hour upon hour, days upon days were spent on penning the document. Ideas and thoughts from men like John Locke and Virginia's George Mason, coupled with others, influenced the final declaration, nominally written by 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson. The content of this detailed declaration of beliefs, grievances and professed rights would prove to sever any connection between the British Crown and the American Colonies. Upon presentation of the document, debates ebbed and flowed, yet finally a vote was taken and the Declaration of Independence N o, not members of a law firm, though two of these fellows were barristers. In June 1776 five men – John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman, members of the 2nd Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia – were assigned to a committee to "draw up a declaration." Well over a year prior, American Colonists had become embroiled in open, armed rebellion against the British government of his Majesty King George III. Keep in mind that these thirteen colonies, stretched along the Atlantic coastline, had been part of the British Empire for 169 years! Each of the colonies had selected men to serve as representatives in hopes of finding a path of peaceful reconciliation with the Crown. However, with the appointment of Brother George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, hopes for a peaceful solution melted away. Whilst many favored separation from The Grand Historian's Courier Case Hewes, Hooper & Penn: Our Signers By Steven Campbell, Grand Historian 14 | T H E M A S O N M AGA Z I N E