A little history lesson for you Virginians who always try to steal credit for something that was conceived, created, and implemented in Philadelphia - the Athens of the America's.
They, the people you mentioned, may have been born in Virginia but they chose Philadelphia. (BTW neither Henry nor Washington were signers of the Declaration.)
Actually your Virgnians just had a better PR team. You rebels really are good at style - not so about substance. Consider Bill Clinton as the best example of this.
The Declaration committee consisted of Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston, and Sherman. Jefferson was chosen as much for his penmanship as anything else. He wrote it here at 7th and Market Sts. in Philadelphia not in Virginia. ( Probably something to do with the air there in Virginia. Not very inspirational.)
Samuel Adams did more than Patrick Henry ever did to fan the flames and he was from Boston. Patrick Henry didn't even sign it. Probably too busy keeping his slaves in line? Little difficult to reconcile all 'men are created equal' with owning slaves is it not? John Adams pointed that out to Thomas Jefferson more than 200 years ago.
It was a Philadelphian, Thomas Paine, who really fanned the flames to declare independence. A little booklet called Common Sense. So simple, even a Virginian could read it.
North Carolina was the first to instruct their representatives to vote for independence if proposed. Rhode Island was the first to declare independence.
It was another Philadelphian, Robert Morris, who financed the Revolution so Washington could where his fancy uniform and have his teeth fixed. Morris was only one of two Founders who signed all three documents: Declaration, Articles and Constitution.
Another Philadelphian, George Clymer,also provided funds for the Revolution.
George Taylor, a Pennsylvania Founder, was the armorer for the army. Washington would have been throwing rocks if it weren't for him.
James Wilson later became one of the first justices of the Supreme Court and was one of the chief contributors to the Constitution.
Of course, Franklin's contributions need no mention.
Youse Virginians can yap all you want about Jamestown - most famous as the first place in the colonies to have slaves. Normal people will come to Philadelphia - which along with Jerusalem, Athens, and London, are the most important cities in the history of Western Civilization.
Them there are fightin' words..............and I do not say that as a Virginian, even though I live here, but as a native New Yorker.
Yeah, I guess Philadelphia is pretty doggone important -
if you're from Turkey :op~~~~~
And another thing for Virginians...
We don't get our pantaloons in a twist over a good bit of nayberly rivalry.
Go ahead have yer party. But the FACT remains that without the Virginians, there would have been no Philadelphia.
Have some sweet tea and Midol and get over yerself.