William Paca

You don't know my voice. You may not even know my name. But you know the rights I helped enshrine and the country I helped build. I am William Pecove of Maryland. Lawyer, patriot, signer, and for most of my life, a man who preferred the pen to the podium. I helped form the Sons of Liberty in my county. Wrote speeches for Samuel Chase. Helped bury a royal proclamation in a mock funeral, complete with coffin, gallows and cannon fire. I let others stand in the square. I wrote what they said. When Congress called, I went, but with a heavy heart. My wife Molly had died in childbirth. She was just 39. I had children to bury, but a nation to raise. I did not seek revolution, but I did not stand aside from it. John Adams called me the deliberator. Benjamin Rush called me honest. I simply called for independence. I signed the Declaration, but I knew parchment alone would not protect liberty. That's why I kept going. I wrote laws. I judged cases. I helped draft the amendments that would become the Bill of Rights. I served as governor, as judge, as a friend to soldiers and a servant of the republic. And when my voice grew tired, I retired to my home on y island. So when you speak freely, worship openly, read without fear. Know that my pen helped make it so.