This week: All the World’s A Mystery! Edited by: A Christmas Carol St.Ann  
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This month I’m going to write about a series of mysteries that have existed for over 200 years. It is one of the greatest mystery series in the United States and indeed, it was birthed on the same day, with the writing of our Declaration of independence. Some people say it is (they are) solvable. Others say it’s all too intricate, too difficult to ever solve because the passing of time and secrets taken to the grave have rendered it indecipherable. Others say there is no mystery or that at least one of the biggest mysteries is nothing more than a made up piece of fiction, concocted solely to sell weekly editions of a fledgling newspaper.
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Did you know that the original copy of our Declaration of Independence is missing and had never been found?
It is and it hasn’t.
Did you know that it was neither written nor signed on July 4th, 1776?
It wasn’t and it wasn’t.
It was completed and formally written on July 2nd. That was the day Independence from Britain was declared.
The DoI was agreed upon by the Continental Congress and passed on the 4th. The Dunlap Broadside version was typeset and printed on July 4th, and sent to the colonies. At that time only John Hancock (the President of the Continental Congress) and Charles Thompson (the Secretary) signed it on that day. No one else. And it did not say “unanimous” because New York had not yet weighed-in.
Some people still believe General Washington refused to sign it, but that, too, is grossly incorrect. He didn’t sign it because he was in New York City, preparing the Continental Army for an attack by the British. What he did do when he received his copy, was have it read aloud to his troops to rally them.
It wasn’t signed by the other 54 until August 2nd, a full month later.
The reason all this is a mystery is simply because it’s omitted from school curriculum. But that’s a whole ‘nother newsletter for a whole ‘nother day.
Meanwhile, let’s continue with the DoI mystery, shall we?
The fair copy of the Declaration, the original one Thomas Jefferson submitted to Congress is missing and has never been found.
What is on display at our national archives, is an original copy.
Now, to further incite mystery buffs, there is some degree of confusion over the actual author of the DoI. Some say it was solely Thomas Jefferson. Others believe it was largely Jefferson, edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. Still others insist it was penned by Thomas Payne who published Common Sense just a few months earlier.
I’m not even going to go into speculation over whose handprint that is on the back of it. (Some do say it’s Thomas Payne’s though.)
No one truly knows the answers. They’ve been lost to History. At least for now.
Equally fascinating are the Beale papers.
*The Beale ciphers are a set of three ciphertexts, one of which allegedly states the location of a buried treasure of gold, silver and jewels estimated to be worth over US$43 million as of January 2018. (cit. Wikipedia)
Thomas Jefferson Beale, (TJB) not to be confused with our founding father, was a Virginian believed to have been born around 1792. He is responsible for yet another mystery that stands the test of time. (If this next bit sounds familiar, it is the story around which the plot of the movie script for “National Treasure” was written. And it, too, is a genuine mystery surrounding our precious document.)
According to this story, TJB, discovered a king’s ransom in gold and treasure worth millions and hid it using a code he created from an original copy of the DoI. No one knows if this story is truth or fiction. Given the fact that its publication in weekly installments saved his fledgling newspaper and turned it into a huge money making success, I suspect it was fiction. Still, treasure hunters the world over continue to search for what is presently estimated to be close to 50 million dollars in various commodities, mostly, if not all, gold. So was it truth… or fiction. Given TJB was also a fiction writer of dime novels, my guess is his real treasure could be found with the flick of his quill. We may never know.
And that, my writing pals, is what mystery is all about.
Thank you for reading!
One Last Thing!
Remember to nominate great mysteries!
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If you’ve got a mystery in your head:
Try out your mystery chops here:
Flesh it out here:
Workshop it here with dedicated, in-depth reviews:
In the meantime, enjoy this extremely valuable (and generous!) writing assist!
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Mystery: August 10, 2022 Issue [#11502]
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