Soon after the flight of Governor Wentworth upon receiving the intelligence of the battle of Lexington, an address was prepared by a committee of the provincial convention, of which Dr. Thornton was president, which was published over his signature. To the young reader this may seem unimportant, until it is known it was full evidence to convict him of high treason, and would have doomed him to the scaffold had he fallen into the hands of his enemies. Hence, the patriotism and boldness of the act.
The address was couched in strong and feeling terms, well calculated to produce the intended effect. The following extract is a fair sample of the whole: “You must all be sensible that the affairs of America have at length come to an affecting crisis. The horrors and distresses of a civil war, which, till of late, we only had in contemplation, we now find ourselves obliged to realize. Painful, beyond expression, have been those scenes of blood and devastation which the barbarous cruelty of British troops have placed before our eyes. Duty to God, to ourselves, to posterity, enforced by the cries of slaughtered innocents, have urged us to take up arms in our own defence. Such a day as this was never before known either to us or to our fathers. We would therefore recommend to the colony at large to cultivate that christian union, harmony, and tender affection which is the only foundation upon which our invaluable privileges can rest with any security, or our public measures be pursued with the least prospect of success.”
On the 10th of January, 1776, Dr. Thornton was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and on the 12th of September he was elected a member of the Continental Congress, and when he took his seat affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence. For those who are not correctly informed upon the subject it is natural to suppose that the signers of the chart of our liberty were present on the memorable 4th of July when it was adopted. This was not the case. Messrs. Franklin, Rush, Clymer, Wilson, Ross, and Taylor, as in the case of Dr. Thornton, were not members on that day. Nor does the name of Thomas M’Kean appear upon the printed records of Congress, although he was present and signed on the 4th of July; and the name of Henry Wisner, a delegate from Orange county, New York, who signed the original manuscript of the declaration on the day it was adopted, has never been properly recognised. These errors were undoubtedly clerical, not intentional. Mr. Wisner was a highly respectable member, and a pure and zealous patriot.