Iron Men

On July 19, 1776, after New York’s delegates had received instructions from the new Provincial Congress in their colony to support independence, Congress resolved that the Declaration “be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile of ‘The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,’ and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.”

The formal handwritten document, the one now displayed in the Rotunda of the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., was probably prepared by Timothy Matlack, clerk to the Second Continental Congress, who was known for his fine penmanship. He was also a colonel in the Philadelphia Fifth Battalion and later became a delegate to Congress.

The Journals of the Continental Congress records on August 2, 1776, that “The Declaration of Independence, being engrossed, and compared at the table, was signed [by the members].” Most signed the Declaration on that date, though several delegates signed later. Delaware delegate Thomas McKean was a colonel of the Philadelphia Fourth Battalion, in New Jersey reinforcing Washington’s troops, and was the last person to sign the Declaration, perhaps as late as 1781.

John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, famously signed with a large, bold signature. He is supposed to have said that now John Bull—the popular personification of England—can read Hancock’s name without needing spectacles and that the King could double the reward on his head. When Hancock passed the quill—they all signed the document as individuals not identified by colony—he reiterated the importance of unanimity and said that the delegates must all hang together. Benjamin Franklin is said to have quipped in response that “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”