Declaration of Independence

By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, the Ameican Revolution had begun—with fighting between colonials and British a Lexington and Concord. The New England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the Committe Of Five that drafted the Declaration Of Independence. Although he was temporarily disabled by gout. and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several "small but important". changes to the draft sent to him by Thomos Jefferson.

At the signing, he is quoted as having replied to a comment by John Hancock that they must all hang together: "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."