"When we are all hung..."

Benjamin Harrison was a delegate from Virginia to the Second Continental Congress that approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Harrison's son, William Henry Harrison, became the country's 9th President (he died after one month in office) and his great grandson, also Benjamin Harrison, became the nation's 23rd President. Harrison (the delegate to the Second Continental Congress) was 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighed 250 pounds. When he walked up to the table to sign the Declaration of Independence, he made the following comment to his fellow delegate, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts:

“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 for an hour or two before you are dead.”