London, GB | Formerly of New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, and the Western Cape. | Saoránach d’Éirinn.

“…the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God…”


Detail from John Trumbull’s ‘Signing of the Declaration of Independence‘.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Two-hundred-and-twenty-eight years ago today, three men with degrees from St Andrews signed the Declaration of Independence, and thus the United States were born (or so the story goes; their independence was only properly established in 1783). Those three were Mr. Benjamin Franklin (Hon. LLD, 1759), Mr. James Wilson (M.A., 1762), and the Rev. John Witherspoon (D.Div., 1764). Rev. Witherspoon was President of Princeton University from 1768 to his death in 1794, whereas Wilson became a justice of the Supreme Court after it was established. Both Franklin and Wilson went on to sign the Constitution as well, two of only eight people who signed both.

Published at 10:35 am on Sunday 4 July 2004. Categories: History St Andrews.
Comments

Surely we weren’t independent until 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed and the United Kingdom decided it didn’t want us anymore.

— Robert Harrington 4 Jul 2004 2:04 am

If I might offer a slight quibble, my alma mater was named the College of New Jersey while Rev. Witherspoon was her president, becoming Princeton University in 1896. Dei sub numine viget!

— ScurvyOaks 13 Jul 2007 3:20 pm
Leave a comment

NAME (required)

EMAIL (required)

WEBSITE (not required)

COMMENT

Home | About | Contact | Paginated Index | Twitter | Facebook | RSS/Atom Feed
andrewcusack.com | © Andrew Cusack 2004-present (Unless otherwise stated)