Class Act of 1776
                       God Bless You!

How do we begin, where do we turn,
a day of celebration, prayer, remembrance.
Time to remember where it all began,
a chance to say thanks, our freedom deliverance.

                    God Bless You
John Hancock, Samuel Chase, William Paca,
Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson.

Huddled in a tavern, a price on their heads,
rebel rousers they were, Patriots we say.
Never before, and we know never since,
how many came together under God this day.

                    God Bless You
Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton,
Robert Morris, and Dr. Benjamin Rush.

A dream, a wish, perhaps a passing fancy,
so oppressed, the last straw was The Stamp Act.
Lay claim the Dutch, French, Spanish and British,
then five Coercive Acts pushed us into a pact.

                     God Bless You
Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer,
Jay Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson,
George Ross, Caesar Rodney, and George Read.

Mutually pledged to each other under God,
their sacred honor, their fortune, and their life.
Some were murdered, beaten, and tortured,
homes burned, families killed, one lost his wife.

                      God Bless You
Thomas M. Kean, William Floyd, Philip Livingston,
Arthur Middleton, Button Gwinnett, Francis Lewis,
Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon.

The Battle of Brooklyn to the Battle of Trenton,
a call to arms heard by farmers and teachers.
To Valley Forge suffering, enduring, and learning,
shoemakers, blacksmiths, fathers, and preachers.

                       God Bless You
Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark,
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Samuel Adams,
John Adams, Robert T. Paine, and Elbridge Gerry.

Francis Marion guarding the Carolina outback,
Nathanael Greene, and his Mountain Men.
A nation split by Patriots, Loyalists, unconcerned,
culminating at Yorktown in a wide-open glen.

                       God Bless You
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, William Williams,
Roger Sherman,Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott,
Matthew Thornton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes.

Remember George Washington's lifetime service,
alongside Marquis de Lafayette, but that was then.
Today, Flags waiving, we honor named, unnamed,
this ideology, this dream began with fifty-six men.

                       God Bless You
John Penn, Edward Rutledge, T. Heyward Jun,
T. Lynch Jun, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.

                 Our Fifty-six Signers
                              of
       "The Declaration of Independence"

Written by:
Karen Palumbo
Photography by:
Robert Palumbo
7/1/2010 © All rights reserved