THE BARTLETT MANSION.
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��duties. Congress met at nine in the morning, and continued its session until four o'clock in the afternoon. Some- times the debates continued half through the night. In this unweari- ed devotion to business Dr. Bartlett largely participated, thereby considera- bly affecting his health and spirits in consequence.
I )r. Bartlett was also a member of the Congress of 1776, and was fore- most among those illustrious men who imperiled their property, their liberty, and their lives, by attaching their signa- tures to that instrument which estab- lished our national independence. The thirteen states, then comprising the American colonies, were represented in the assemblage that passed the meas- ure by fifty-seven members. The president, John Hancock, was the only one, however, who signed the docu- ment on the 4th of July, 1776. On the second day of August it was signed by all but one of the fifty-six signers whose names are appended to it. The other, who was Matthew Thornton, at- tached his signature in November. Henry Wisner. one of the New York delegation, was present when congress expressed its approbation of the Dec- laration, and voted in favor of it : but before the engrossed copy was signed by the several members, Mr. Wisner left congress, and thus failed of affixing his name to this memorable paper.
When the vote was taken on the question it was recommended to begin with the northernmost colony. Dr. Bartlett, therefore, had the honor of being called upon for an expression of his opinion, and of first giving his vote in favor of the resolution. He was also the first to affix his signature after Hancock. Hancock's is the handsom- est and boldest of all the signatures attached to the Declaration ; the others look weak and cramped beside it. But not one was written with a trem- bling hand except Stephen Hopkins, of Rhode Island, and it was not fear that made him tremble, but the palsy, from which he was a sufferer. Charles Car- roll was the only member who added
��his place of residence, and the reason of its being done in this instance is somewhat peculiar. When Carroll was signing, some one near him remarked, " There are several of your name, and if we are unsuccessful they will not know whom to arrest." "Not so," re- plied the Maryland millionaire, and im- mediately added, "of Carrollton." He lived to see all the memorable men with whom he acted on that eventful day pass away, and enjoyed the pros- perity of his country until 1832, when he died, at the advanced age of ninety- five years.
At the time he signed the " charter of our liberties," Dr. Bartlett was forty- eight years old, in the very prime of his life and powers. Most of the signers were younger than he was ; for the av- erage of all was forty-three years and ten months. Edward Rutledge was the youngest of the fifty-six, being only twenty-seven. The Nestor of the party was Benjamin Franklin, who was sev- entv- The most opulent was probably Charles Carroll, who was considered the wealthiest untitled man in the col- onies. Robert Morris came next. Samuel Adams was the poorest, his im- poverished condition being well known. The others were all in easy circum- stances.
Bartlett was not the only physician among the members, there being four others. Thirty of them were lawyers, seven were farmers, eight were mer- chants, two were mechanics, one was a clergyman, one was a surveyor, one was a shoemaker, and Franklin boast- ed of being a printer. With the excep- tion of eight all the signers were natives of American soil ; of these — two, Rob- ert Morris, and Burton Gwinnett, of Georgia, were born in England ; Mat- thew Thornton, of New Hampshire, and James Smith, and George Taylor, of Pennsylvania, were born in Ireland ; John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, were born in Scotland, and Francis Lewis, of New York, was born in Wales.
The doctor continued a delegate to congress until 1779, being annually
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