Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1919 — The DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE

r~ THOMAS JEFFERSON wrote Tthe Declaration of Independence. And congress signed it. And the Liberty Bell rang _ forth the glad tidings, proZs rS claiming liberty in the land. L.XJ And George Washington began to fight the British — This is about the way the average schoolboy—not to say some older Americans—thinks the Declaration of Independence came into existence, the Independence of the United States of America was secured and the Fourth of July became a national holiday. While some of the details concerning the Declaration of Independence will always be a matter of argument among historians, the sequefiee of events is clear and runs like this: Fighting between the Americans and the British began April 19, 1775, at Lexington. Even after the fighting was on it was somb time before the movement for independence gained much headway in the. public mind. February 18, 1776, a committee appointed to prepare an address to the country presented its report to congress. This report reads in part: “We have been accused of carrying on the' war for the purpose of establishing an empire. We disavow the intention. We declare that what we aimed at and what we are entrusted by you to pursue is the defense and re-establishment of the constitutional rights of the colonies.” It was not until June 7, 1776, that Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution which was to become only less familiar than the Declaration Itself. This resolution contains the famous sentence: “That these United States are and of right ought to be free and Independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be dissolved.” This resolution was debated many -times by congress. The chief speakers for separation were John Adams, his cousin, Samuel Adams; Roger Sherman, Oliver Olcott, Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania led the opposition for delay, prominent among his followers being John Jay, James Wilson, James Duane, Edward Rutledge and Robert R. Livingston, but it was evident from the beginning that they were in the minority. To save time a committee was appointed on June 11 to frame the Declaration of Independence. Strange to say, Richard Henry Lee, who was the father of the resolution, and by parliamentary right should have had the chairmanship of the committee, was left out of it. The reasons for this omission have been variously explained. It is a fact that he was absent when the committee was named, having been called home by the illness of his wife. The five members w-ere Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York. All five were prominent In the congress and in national affairs. Roger Sherman is unique in American history as a “signer of'jthe four great documents: the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence,

the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution —all of which he was Instrumental in preparing. The committee elected Jefferson chairman and instructed him to make a draft of a declaration. The committee submitted its first draft June 28. July 2 the congress adopted the resolution presented by Lee and resolved to take further consideration on the morrow. On the third the committee had not finished its labors, but on July 4 It presented a completed draft to the body, and after a long debate, which continued until .the night, the congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. After the committee of the whole had debated the paper for hours Benjamin Harrison reported to congress that the Declaration of Independence had been agreed to by the committee of the whole. The paper was again read and ordered printed. The Declaration was committed to the printer, Dunlap, immediately, and the broadside was ready on the following day, July 5, when it received the signatures of John Hancock and of Charles Thomson, president and secretary of congress, respectively, authenticating the copy to be forwarded to the governments of the thirteen states. The signatures were- followed by the words: “By Order and in Behalf of the Congress.” Copies of the broadside were sent to the various states and to the commanding officers of the continental troops. It is not certain that each of these bore the signatures of the president and the secretary. On July 19 it was ordered that the Declaration “passed on the fourth, should be fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and style of ‘The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen Unitel States of America,’ and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of congress.” On August 2 the journal records that “The Declaration of Independence, being engrossed, and compared at the table, was signed by the members.” As to the signatures to the Declaration, a volume might be written. The common understanding Is that the fifty-five men whose names are appended were present in congress on July 4, 1776, and assenting to the Declaration. This understanding Is far from the truth. Signatures appear on the document 1 of men who were not members of the congress at the time the Declaration was agreed on. It has been suggested that the proper interpretation of the orders of congress to have the document signed by every member, was intended to Include those who became members about this time. But Henry Wisner of New York, who voted for independence, did not sign, and Robert. Morris, who did not cast his vote for the Declaration, did. Wisner was absent in New York on August 2 to attend the provincial congress, to which he had been elected, and evidently never had an opportunity to affix his signature to the document. There wap a reason for the delay In appending the signatures apart from the time necessary to have the document engrossed. It was intended to have the Declaration go out to the world as the unanimous declaration of a’l the colonies, and on July Fourth,

1776, the delegates from New York felt some diffidence In voting, as they had no instructions. Wisner, however, did cast a vote In favor of independence, and before August 2 New York had Instructed her delegation to agree to the Declaration. There was a hearty response when: It became known that signatures werei to be appended to the document. Samuel Chase of Maryland was absent; from congress on July 4 and the next! day. he wrote from Annapolis to John Adams, “How shall I transmit to posterity that I gave my assent?” On the ninth Adams replied, “As soon 89 an American seal is prepared I conjecture the Declaration will be subscribed to by all the members, which will give you the opportunity you wish for of transmitting your name among the votaries of independence.” Elbridge Gerry of New York had to leave Philadelphia two weeks after the Declaration had been adopted, and : he wrote to John and to Samuel Adams, “Pray subscribe for me ye Declaration of Independence If ye same is to be signed as proposed. I think we ought to. have ye privilege when necessarily absent of voting and signing by proxy.” Of the signers who did not vote for the Declaration because they were not members at that time William Williams of Connecticut was not elected, until July 11; Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor and Ross of Pensylvanla were not elected until July 20. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, as well as Chase, was attending a meeting of the Maryland convention on July 4. George Wythe of Virginia on the same day was chairman of the committee of the whole of the Virginia convention, and Richard Henry Lee was in the convene tion, having been compelled to return from Philadelphia on account of sickness In his family, having left on June 13. William Hooper of North Carolina was absent from Philadelphia at least as late as July 8. Yet all of these members signed the Declaration, although some of them, it has been shown, were not even members at that time, and four members were absent; Thomas McLean of Delaware was the last to sign and did not do so until five years after the adoption of the Declaration and at a time when the war virtually was at an end. It was through no fault of McLean. His name was omitted from the printed copy in the journal. The popular, traditional Idea of the signing, of the Declaration of Independence presents it as a graceful and formal function taking place July 4, 1776, in a large, handsomely furnished chamber in Independence hall, Philadelphia. To give the necessary touch: of vivacity to the picture there is the scene of the small boy darting from the door as the last signer sets his autograph to the parchment and dashing down the street, calling to his grandfather to “Ring! Oh; ring for liberty!" As a matter of fact the Declaration of Independence was signed behind locked doors. The city was not breathlessly awaiting the event outside, nor did the Liberty Bell peal forth on that day the triumphal note of freedom. From these facts It appears that the “Fourth of July” might with good reason have fallen upon either July 2 or August 2 Instead of upon July 4.