Who Are They? - Response to "Whatever Happened to the Signers of the Declaration of Independence" & "Bold Men in Ruffled Shirts"

How would you picture the men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Whenever I have seen pictures of men signing the Declaration of Independence, they all looked as if they were over the age of sixty, probably because all of them had grayish, white hair. It also looked as if all of the men were wearing ruffled shirts and long pants. Observations do mean a lot, but what's most important is reality. Inr eality, all of these men who signed the Declaration of Independence were nearly all under the age of forty five, with just a few exceptions. As stated in the article, "With the exceptions of Benjamin Franklin, who was 70, and a few others, they were also younger than we usually think of them." (McCullough 59). I found this to be very interesting because I had previously assumed that all of these men were older than forty years old. It is also clear to me that all of these men were on a mission, mainly because of when McCullough wrote, "And let us never forget they were setting out not only to triumph over the British Army and Navy, but to establish an entirely new nation" (McCullough 59). These men were determined to improve the conditions in America. I definitely admire the work and effort these men put towards creating this Declartion of Indepence. "To sign your name to the Declaration of Independence was to declare yourself a traitor to the British crown" (McCullough 59). This just shows how admirable these men are. I also found the information included in "Whatever Happened to the Signers of..." to be extremely interesting, yet surprising at the same time. I had previously thought of these men to be successful and well-rounded individuals, but as this article clearly proves, none of them recieved the greatest of fortunes.