Declaration of Independence, read publicly in Exeter in 1776 and 2014

Veterans shine at moving tribute
Seacoast Online
May 20, 2014

On Saturday evening New Hampshire Senators Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen and New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, led the Pledge of Allegiance at the second annual Veteran's Count Salute Our Soldiers gala at Service Credit Union headquarters in Portsmouth.

But these political luminaries were not the stars of the night.

Through a feat of diplomacy, determination and security that simply boggles the mind, Julie Williams, director of the American Independence Museum in Exeter was able to wheel out, in a Colonial-style display case crafted for the event, the priceless Dunlap Broadside Declaration of Independence, read publicly in Exeter in 1776 by John Taylor Gilman.

The Declaration, along with original drafts of the U.S. Constitution, a Purple Heart awarded by George Washington, a Purple Heart awarded to Bill Schuler and a Congressional Medal of Honor awarded by Franklin Roosevelt to Harl Pease, will be on display at Service Credit Union, and may be viewed by the public free of charge, through May 29, from noon to 5 p.m. each day.

But these shining American treasures, however impressive, were not the stars of the night.

The stars, as keynote speakers Col. Danny McKnight ("Black Hawk Down") and Jim Webb (former U.S. senator and secretary of the Navy) noted very clearly, are America's military veterans who, from the dawn of our nation's history, have answered the highest calling to protect our sacred freedoms.

The cherished ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution have been protected by the men and women of the military who have fought and sometimes made the ultimate sacrifice for Americans' life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Honored Saturday night were veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. There were parents whose sons and daughters are deployed to Afghanistan today and who know the mixture of pride and anxiety that comes from having someone you love putting themselves in harms way in service of our glorious country.
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