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Show Jn COiVGRESS, J(x,y 4,' jy6 A AUXJMeA. A4AU , ui JLL. dZ&aL 1 g I Si. lr te , B JflT&ZZfy rtiA-JZoi, erSuff-, tt-- "f'Tv 'JU know Uie story of tlie Declara fji A tlon of Independence? Do you know rf ' f " Js who drnfted it? Wno signed It, and i,, wlien? Where the original document is today? 5 This immortal document, a facsimile j, of which is reproduced above, will be H 150 years old this month. Todiiy th Stars and Stripes and the flag of Great Britain are intertwined In a bond of friendship. friend-ship. Let us go buck and review the situation a century and a half ago. Prior to the revolutionary struggle, the sentiment senti-ment in the colonies for more than ten years from the time of the original Stamp act troubles was opposed to severance of relations with Great Uritain. Even such memorable events as Paul Revere's ride and the battle of Lexington and Concord in April, 1775, had failed to arouse any widespread determination for independence. In July. 1775, the same Continental congress which had appointed Washington commander in chief uf the army, drew up a declaration of the causes for taking up arms in which It was said: "We mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us and which we sincerely wish to see restored." Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration Declara-tion of Independence, himself wrote two months after the battle of Punker hill that he was "looking with fondness toward a reconciliation with Great Pritaln." Historians point out that the colonists were the conservatives, and George III and the English parliament were the radicals In starting the Anurican devolution. Such men as Benjamin Franklin. Samuel and John Adams, and Patrick Henry had felt for a long time that a break was inevitable. The declaration of the citizens of .Mockh'iibury comity. N. C, was one of the local evenis indicating the trend of public opinion toward independence. Not until the appearance of Thomas Panic's stirring pamphlet "Common Sense." however, early in January, 1770, was tN're any appreciable public sentiment in its favor. This pamphlet, despite its faulty logic, explained ex-plained the situation to the people as none of the more eminent political writers had done. It avoided cons! itutional technicalities, and hi the plain language of the day presented the facts so that all could understand. I'aiao suddenly found himself transformed from oi.srarily to fame.. The. Pennsylvania legislature vot.'d him $2,500. and a southern legislator sug-p.'svd sug-p.'svd that li statue to Puine in gold would not be too high an honor. Things began now to move rapidly In the colonies. Six months after the appearance of Paint's pamphlet, Plehard Henry Lee of Virginia Vir-ginia roue in the Continental congress at Phil-lahiphla Phil-lahiphla on June 7, 1770. and presented his famous resolutions which quickly led to the Declaration Dec-laration of Independence. These resolutions In I.ee's handwriting, and now one of the treasured papers on the Library of Congress, were: Resolved, That these. Unit, d Colonies nre, and of rlpht onalit to be, fioe and Injepend, nt Srates; that tliey are absolved from at! alP glance to the Brlllh ivn, and that nil Dolltical connection i n i arai-mr mm wrBT" TMiOTMBtrHR between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved: That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign alliances; That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation. Here was a pure Declaration of Independence, proposed by one ot the most eminent men of the most influential colonies at that time, and promptly seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. Massachu-setts. The next day congress went Into a committee of the wdiole to consider the resolutions. Delegates Dele-gates from Pennsylvania, New York, and one or two other colonies, objected on the ground that the Middle colonies "were not yet ready for so radical a step, although personally expressing a friendly attitude. Congress realized that unanimous action by all the colonies on a question of such moment was of supreme importance. Several delegates had not been instructed to go so far as voting for independence, New York and New Jersey being among them. The majority had been authorized to take any action that might be considered wise. Virginia, on the other hand, had gone so far as actually to instruct her delegates to propose a declaration to congress. Richard Henry Lee was simply obeying his legislature when he presented his resolutions. On June 10, congress postponed final consideration consid-eration for three weeks, and on the following day appointed a committee of five to draw up a declaration. Lee surely would have been on this committee had he not in the meantime been called home at the illness of his wife. But for that the Virginian might have been the author of the Declaration of Independence, instead of In's younger Virginia colleague, Thomas Jefferson, then but thirty-three years old. Coming to congress with a reputation of wielding wield-ing a facile pen, Jefferson in the balloting for the committee received a majority of votes"and became be-came its chairman. The others were Benjpr.iin Franklin of Pennsylvania, John Adams of J,ssa-chusetts. J,ssa-chusetts. Roger Shermvn of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York. Stories differ as to how Jefferson came to be selected to write "the one American state paper" as has been said, "that has reached to the supreme distinction in the world and that seems likely to last as long as American civilisation endures." One account is given bv John Ad mis who said that he and Jefferson were appointed by the committee to prepare the rough minutes in a proper form. When Jefferson first proposed that Adams prepare the draft of the Declaration Adams declined, giving, as he sn5-s In his auteJ biography, the following reans: "(1) That he was a Virginian and I a Massa-chusettensian. Massa-chusettensian. (2) That he was a southern man and I was a northern one. (.?) That I had been so obnoxious for my early and constant zeal In promoting the measure that every draft of mine would undergo a more severe scrutiny and criticism criti-cism in congress than of his composition. (4) And lastly, and that would be reason enough if there were no other, I had a great opinion of the elegance of his pen and none at all of my own. I therefore insisted that no hesitation should be made on his part. He accordingly took the minutes, and In a day or two produced to me his draft." Jefferson, writing In 1S23, tells a slightly different differ-ent story. He says that the entire committee urged him to make the draft. He showed it first to Franklin and Adams, who, in their handwriting, made a few minor alterations. This original draft was given by Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, the dean of the Virginia delegation, and In 1825 his grandson presented it to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. Making another copy, which incorporated the suggested changes, Jefferson presented it to the committee which reported It unchanged to the congress. On July 1, 1776, Philadelphia buzzed with excitement, for here was to be taken the most important step in a long series of disputes with the mother country. j The original resolutions of Richard Henry Lee 1 came before the body as a committee of the j whole. They were approved by a two-thirds vote, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina being on the negative side. The New York delegates" having received no instructions, were unable to the formal vote of congress was taken the next day, the resolutions were approved by twelve colonies ail except New York. Thus on July 2, 177(5, the original colonies became the ' United States of America. The next two days were spent in discussing the draft of the declaration as drawn by Jefferson. Jeffer-son. The debate was lively, but when It Was over, the draft was adopted with very few j changes. Of the twenty-eight specific charts brought against George III, only one was deleted I That was the one accusing the king of "piraticl I warfare" in permitting the capture and enslave- ' ment of human beings. This was not a just I charge, for the slave trade had been carried on long before the reign of George III. One other I paragraph, near the close, was omitted. Besides j these, barely twenty lines were stricken out, and i not a single addition of fact was made ' 1 ilie Declaration of Independence was then unanimously adopted by the twelve colonies wiiose delegates were Instructed to vote In its favor, on July 4, 177G, winch henceforth became be-came the recognized birthday of the new nation On July 9 word arrived at the headquarters of George Washington in New York that the DeeH ration had been ratified, and It was at once rend to the soldiers and cilizens. On the same day the New York assembly. In session at White I Plains, gave its formal vote for independence and for the first time the thirteen colonies were united In their common cause. " t John Hancock, president of the on-m, w j the only member who signed the Declaration on ' July 4. An engrossed copy on parchment was or dered for all the delegates to sign. This wis com pleted on August. 2 and signed by 54 delegates I Two others signed later, Thomas MoKoan of n,,,,,' ware, who was absent with his regiment In u' ' gust, and Matthew Thornton of N(,w TIamnsmr(1 who was not elected to congress until ti, He was permitted to sign the donlm"' Srsi,,S 11,0 t",:i' nU"1,W f j |