Mike Parker: Declaration signers continued serving after Revolution

I recently wrote about some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence who suffered personal and professional losses during the American Revolution. Today, I want to highlight just a few of the signers who became significant figures in the newly formed American republic.

Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania deserves special recognition. When Franklin returned from serving the colonial interests as an ambassador to England and France in 1775, Franklin was part of the Second Continental Congress and served on many committees, including one to establish an independent postal system.

On July 26, 1775, the Congress appointed Franklin the first Postmaster General of the organization now known as the United States Postal Service. Franklin received an annual salary of $1,000 plus $340 for a secretary and comptroller. He was responsible for all Post Offices “from Falmouth in New England to Savannah in Georgia.”

While serving as the Postmaster General in the summer of 1776, Franklin worked with the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. In the fall, he left for Paris to secure French support for the war. Franklin entrusted the General Post Office to his son-in-law, Richard Bache, who was comptroller and his second-in-command. Franklin’s tenure as Postmaster General officially ended when Bache was appointed to the Post on November 7, 1776.

Renowned for his scientific discoveries, Franklin was, by all accounts, the most highly respected American in Europe. He served the colonies well with his skilled diplomacy. The treaty of alliance he negotiated with France in 1778 proved vital to the success of the American Revolution.

After the war, Franklin helped negotiate the peace treaty with Great Britain, which was signed on September 3, 1783. In 1785, Franklin returned to Philadelphia. He attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and lived to help write and to see the adoption of the Constitution of the United States of America in May 1789.

Less than a year later, on April 17, 1790, Benjamin Franklin died.

Franklin was the only person who signed all four documents that enabled the United States to become the union we know today. In 1776, he signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1778, he signed the Treaty of Alliance with France. In 1783, he signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. In 1789, he signed the U.S. Constitution.

Another famous founder of this country was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Without doubt, Jefferson became the most famous author and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was a planter, lawyer, violinist, inventor, botanist, and architect. He was only 33 when he signed the Declaration.

After the war, Jefferson was President George Washington’s first Secretary of State. After serving as Vice President under John Adams, he became the country’s third president and served two terms. During his tenure as President, he effectively doubled the size of this country with the Louisiana Purchase. He founded the University of Virginia.

 Jefferson was a shy man. He was a much better writer than speaker, so he was a natural choice for drafting the Declaration. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, at age 83, just hours before his friend, John Adams, also passed away – on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration that they both had signed.

Although Jefferson was in France serving as the United States minister when the Federal Constitution was written in 1787, he influenced the development of the federal government through his correspondence. Later, his actions as the first secretary of state, vice president, leader of the first political opposition party, and third president of the United States were crucial in shaping and defining the Constitution's powers and the nature of the emerging republic.

To this day, our nation rightly remembers Franklin and Jefferson as two of the geniuses who helped gain independence from Great Britain and produce the basic documents that made us what we are today.

 Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.