Dancing in the air
"An anecdote that Benjamin Rush, the Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, liked to tell in his old age makes the point memorably. On July 4, 1776, just after the Continental Congress had finished making its revisions of the Declaration and sent it off to the printer for publication, Rush overheard a conversation between Benjamin Harrison of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: 'I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry,' said Harrison, 'when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.' Rush recalled that the comment 'procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.'
Joseph Ellis
Founding Brothers
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