Saturday, June 29, 2013

Day 154, June 29

After signing the Declaration of Independence, Ben Franklin turned to the others gathered and said, "Gentlemen, we must all hang together--or surely we will all hang separately."

A fellow signer, Benjamin Harrison, had a robust sense of humor to match his robust size (Harrison weighed in at over 300 pounds).  He, like Franklin, was astute enough to realize that if the revolution failed, he and his colleagues would be hanged for treason. 

When he signed his name to the Declaration of Independence, he turned to another signer, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts who weighed less than 100 pounds.

"If we hang, with my weight at the end of the rope it will be over in less than a minute," Harrison said.   "But with you, Elbridge, because you are so light, you'll be dancing on air an hour after I'm gone."



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