Quote of the day...

“The pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants. The silence and gloom of the morning was interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Co. Harrison of Virginia, who said to Mr. Gerry at the table, ‘I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.’  This speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.”[1]

Benjamin Rush to John Adams in an 1811 letter

[1] http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers‑by‑state/ and https://seaofliberty.org/explore/benjamin-rush-john-adams/1063