John Hancock. New Hampshire Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton. Massachusetts Bay Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry. Rhode Island Step. Hopkins, William Ellery. Connecticut. Roger Sherman, Sam'el Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott. New York Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris. New Jersey Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark. Pennsylvania Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross. Delaware. Cæsar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho. M'Kean. Maryland Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Virginia. George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Th Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Ne]son, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton. North Carolina. Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn. South Carolina. Edward Rutledge, Thos. Heyward, Junr., Thomas Lynch, Junr., Arthur Middleton. Georgia. Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton." UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July). Constitutional effect of the Declaration of Independence. "The Declaration of Independence did not create thirteen sovereign states, but the representatives of the people declared that the former English colonies, under the name which they had assumed of the United States of America, became, from the 4th day of July, 1776, a sovereign state and a member of the family of nations, recognized by the law of nations; and further, that the people would support their representatives with their blood and treasure, in their endeavor to make this declaration a universally recognized fact. Neither congress nor the people relied in this upon any positive right belonging either to the individual colonies or to the colonies as a whole. Rather did the Declaration of Independence and the war destroy all existing political jural relations, and seek their moral justification in the right of revolution inherent in every people in extreme emergencies. … Political theories had nothing to do with this development of things. It was the natural result of given circumstances and was an accomplished fact before anyone thought of the legal consequences which might subsequently be deduced from it." _H. von Holst, Constitutional and Political History of the United States, volume 1, chapter 1._ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July). Independence declared in New Jersey and Governor Franklin arrested. See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1774-1776. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (August). The struggle for New York and the Hudson. Battle of Long Island.