THOMAS L. KRANNAWITTER, PH.D. | Liberty Lyceum
The Signers of the Declaration of Independence concluded with a famous and solemn pledge—their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. This was no small matter. What they were calling “revolution” was, from the British point of view, treason against the Crown and punishable by death. Yet, the Signers stood strong and launched the greatest experiment in freedom the world has witnessed, a movement held together by a powerful kind of social and political glue: Trust.
The pledge offered by the Signers in the Summer of 1776 was not a promise to God, nor to fellow citizens. The pledge they made was to each other. They knew, every one of them, that if some broke the trust when the going got tough—and the going was about to get very tough!—others would likely break it too, and the revolution would fail. Betraying their mutual trust would likely mean that each would die in vain and freedom would have to wait for another time and place. But they honored their trust, at great cost in blood, money, and suffering.
Our freedom today—or what remains of it—is the legacy of their remarkable loyalty to one another.