The New Patriots

Donald Trump and Elon Musk, two men who could easily play it safe, are putting it all on the line for American liberty. This is a first since our original revolution.

Rush Limbaugh used to talk about a story his father told about the signers of the Declaration of Independence:

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.

The story had something of a resurrection in the early 2000s and was often shared in various iterations on social media. Not surprisingly, a minor industry emerged seeking to “fact-check” them. An example of such is this from Snopes, which first began fact-checking them back in 2005:

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

It is true that five signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British during the course of the Revolutionary War. However, none of them died while a prisoner, and four of them were taken into custody not because they were considered “traitors” due to their status as signatories to that document, but because they were captured as prisoners of war while actively engaged in military operations against the British.

Snopes concludes that the piece they reviewed (not the Limbaugh piece) was “Mixed” in its accuracy. They’re right. Accuracy matters. Particularly in matters of importance. Snopes then adds something that backhandedly drives home the basic premise:

This is the theme that most of the gotcha fact checkers miss and, indeed, a point that those who seek to debunk the audacity of what those 56 did largely ignore: These men were committing treason. They knew they were committing treason. They knew the penalty for committing treason was hanging. Yet, they did so, risking everything they had.

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