08/02/2026
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE REENACTMENT:
While Congress officially voted for independence on July 2 and adopted the text on July 4, it was actually August 2, 1776, when the physical parchment document was signed by 50 of the 56 delegates.
The famous painting by John Trumbull in 1818 is sometimes mistakenly described as depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The painting actually shows the five-man drafting committee presenting their draft of the Declaration to the Congress, an event that took place on June 28, 1776.
On July 14, 2026, at the Charcoal Corral in Perry, NY, Perry Central School students from Mr. Jimmy Fahey’s 5th-grade history club and 4-H club members from Castile, along with reenactor Adam Tabelski as John Adams, posed for a recreation of the famous painting.
While certainly not meant to be anything close to Trumbull’s masterful work, we were grateful to be able to honor the important history represented by his art and bring a piece of that history to Perry for a brief moment.
One of the 1776 signers, Benjamin Rush, wrote a letter to John Adams years later, a letter which makes one realize how close to death they all felt as they signed, how serious this moment was:
Benjamin Rush to John Adams, 20 July 1811 (excerpt from first paragraph):
“Do you recollect your memorable speech upon the Day on which the Vote was taken? Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress, to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants? The silence & the gloom of the morning were interrupted I well recollect only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia who said to Mr. Gerry at the table, “I shall have a great advantage over you Mr. Gerry when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.” This speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.”
