The Declaration, Perry reminds us, was an ex post facto justification of American beliefs. It was addressed to educated elite opinion, especially abroad; it was designed to win arguments, not to capture the essence of Americanism as Americans themselves already understood it.It wasn’t quite Ex Post Facto... they signed it when the outcome of the revolutionary war was utterly uncertain. {And it is true that the majority of the signers paid for that act with their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.} It was, and is, the equivalent of the signatories saying “I would rather die as a man than live as a[m abused] dog.” and putting their own neck into the hangman’s noose.