Presents the lives, deaths, and scandals involving the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, including John Adams, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson.

The fifty-six signers of America's Declaration of Independence risked their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to found a new country. In this classic work, Benson J. Lossing describes the lives of each of the founding fathers, their greatest achievements, and what impelled them to take such an incredible risk. While some are well known to us – Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock – much of the pleasure in this book comes from reading about the lesser-known signers, and about the many challenges they faced throughout their lives in the young United States. Appendices contain Thomas Jefferson's original version of the Declaration, an analysis of its grievances, the subsequent Articles of Confederation and US Constitution, and the offending Stamp Act. This ebook edition includes an active table of contents, reflowable text, and 50 period engravings of the faces and signatures of the signers.

Included: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, John Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Robert Treat Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Nelson, George Wythe, carter Braxton, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, John Witherspoon, Richard Stockton, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Philip Livingston, Lewis Morris, William Floyd, Francis Lewis, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, Charles Carroll, Thomas Stone, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Lyman Hall, Button Guinnett, George Walton.

"A finding aid for persons seeking information on, or descent from, any of the Signers of the Declaration"--Preface