DC is confusing, park-wise. First of all, parks usually have a type (monument, memorial, etc.) but not this one. Second, there are overlapping layers. Constitution Gardens originally referred to a large area, including the National Mall, but now both parks are part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, which is a grouping but not a park unit. In 1982 the area with a pond next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was established as this park unit in tribute to the Constitution, and it’s signature feature (above) is the semicircle of stones on Signers Island. Which is nice, but, third, these are not signers of the Constitution but rather of the Declaration of Independence.

I know that, because I’m from Concord, Massachusetts and my father was a history major. So I went to the Massachusetts contingent where I saw five names I recognized. John Hancock, John and Sam Adams (yes, the beer guy was a real patriot) didn’t attend the convention. Robert Paine (unrelated to the guy who wrote Common Sense) wasn’t a delegate, and Elbridge Gerry (for whom Gerrymandering is named) was there as a delegate but didn’t sign the Constitution. Only 39 of the 55 delegates actually signed. The important thing was that they had enough votes to pass it and send to the states to ratify.

But, the garden-variety misnomer not withstanding, the signers of the Declaration of Independence did risk their lives, fortunes and sacred honor by signing that document. Their signatures on paper, here captured in stone, meant Treason against the King, punishable by death. 56 brave patriots, including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, Thomas Stone and the others remembered in this garden signed, and we owe them all our thanks.