Debate Aims To Put Audience

In The Shoes Of Patriots

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown journalist and author David Shugarts will be asking his audience to put themselves in the shoes of citizens who lived in this country just prior to the start of the Revolutionary War when they attend his free discussion and debate, “Knowing the Implications, Would You Sign The Declaration of Independence Today?” on Tuesday, April 24, from 7 to 9 pm, in the meeting room of the C.H. Booth Library.

Mr Shugarts is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, whose function, Mr Shugarts said, is to keep alive the spirit of 1776. “One of the things the SAR does is to honor people who honor the flag,” said Mr Shugarts. As an example, “We support Eagle Scouts, and are active in acts of patriotism, so anytime we can discuss anything to further honoring the Revolution, we do so,” he said.

Having spent the past year studying the Declaration of Independence, Mr Shugarts is prepared to present a program that briefly covers the history of the Declaration and brings to life those figures who played integral parts in the founding of the United States. “My function is to bring fact to discussion and put those facts in front of the people,” Mr Shugarts said.

Most people forget that the signers of the Declaration of Independence put their lives at risk by taking part in what was viewed by the King of England as a treasonous act. “They could have been hanged the next day if they were found out. Think about it. Only one-third of the population wanted independence from England. Another third were completely against it. The other third didn’t much care. And there is going to be a long war, in which you could lose everything. There was a lot at stake.”

No minutes were kept of the meetings that led up to the printing of the Declaration, said Mr Shugarts, and while most Americans today are familiar with the copy of the document showing 56 signatures, John Hancock’s most prominently; not so widely known are the facts that the first copies of the words of freedom were signed solely by Mr Hancock, that the scribed Declaration on parchment was not signed until late July or August of 1776, and that a prior document, The Declaration Upon Taking Up Arms, had been issued the previous year.

That document, Mr Shugarts discovered in his studies, explicitly said that the colonies were not declaring independence; they merely wanted King George III to address the list of grievances therein. When the king failed to acknowledge or address The Declaration Upon Taking Up Arms, representatives of the colonies drafted the Declaration of Independence.

“John Dunlop, a printer in Philadelphia, ran off about 200 of those printed copies in early July. What is amazing, considering the times, is that within a month the Declaration was posted in London, and shortly thereafter, all over Europe,” said Mr Shugarts. “In Europe, the people there focused not on the preamble, the flowery statement of our principles that most Americans revere, but rather the first paragraph. We say we are a people and are going to rise to the status of a nation and don’t require a divine right or monarchy to do so. That got the attention of the Europeans.”

Several hundred printed copies of The Declaration of Independence circulated the world, many of which are extremely valuable today and which carry subtle nuances depending upon the printer, but only one scribed document with all 56 signatures exists. That “engrossed” copy was rolled up and put away, and for many months the names of the signatories were not made public due to the danger. For many years, the document moved from one city to another, until landing in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in 1921.

In the meantime, the original copy nearly met its demise when John Quincy Adams ordered a facsimile of the deteriorating document prepared in 1823. The process used nearly destroyed the delicate parchment and faded the ink.

In 1952 the Declaration was moved to the National Archives, where it has undergone treatments for the preservation of the fragile parchment document. It has been displayed publicly for at least the last 50 years, said Mr Shugarts.

What is strange, said Mr Shugarts, is that within five years of it initial publication, the Declaration of Independence was pretty much forgotten by the colonists for whom it had been written. The document struggled to remain in the public eye for the next two centuries, coming to the forefront only when occasions such as anniversary dates, or the deaths of prominent signers reminded citizens of the words that had moved them toward freedom, as it has so many others around the world who have since fashioned declarations of independence based on this one.

“There’s a lot to know about the context of the Declaration of Independence,” Mr Shugarts said. “When you get down to it, what was it for? What did the scribes mean by it and what did the document become? What does the Declaration of Independence mean today?” asked Mr Shugarts. “Remember, the signers had no idea one day women or slaves would be voting, for instance.”

These are the questions Mr Shugarts hopes his audience will ponder as they discuss the Declaration of Independence, its impact on those patriots who signed it and moved forward with the war for freedom, and hear about the leaders of the Revolution.

“At this moment in time we Americans don’t even understand that this beautiful paragraph, the preamble, is the torch we passed on to the rest of the world,” said Mr Shugarts. “Everywhere where people are free, that’s the truth of the Declaration. Our revolutionary spirit is still alive in the world.”