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Stephen Hopkins

Name: Stephen Hopkins
Uploaded: 2025-06-26T15:45:08+00:00
Duration: 1 min 14 s
Channel: Your Advisor
Description: Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island farmer and judge, recounts writing against British taxation in 1764 and signing the Declaration with trembling hands. He…

26 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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1:14

Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island farmer and judge, recounts writing against British taxation in 1764 and signing the Declaration with trembling hands. He steadied his right hand with his left, saying "my hand trembles, but my heart does not." He urges the nation to maintain boldness and steady resolve.

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I am Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, a farmer's son, a shipbuilder, a judge. Of all the signers, only my trusted comrade, Ben Franklin, was older than me. I was one of the first to call for independence. In 1764, a decade before the Revolution, I wrote that that the Crown has no right to tax the colonies without the consent of the people. In 1774, at the First Continental Congress, I saw where this was going. Powder and ball will decide this question, I told the assembled. I was right about that, too. When the moment came for me to sign the Declaration, my hands shook from illness. But as I signed that sacred parchment, I steadied my right with my left and said, my hand trembles, but my heart does not. This nation was born in boldness. Keep it so. With clear minds and steady hearts.