After a long discussion the committee decided to have Jefferson make out a copy of the Declaration. His draft was amended slightly, and then reported to Congress as a whole. Here the debate was very warm. Some of the representatives did not want to vote for independence at all. They considered it a too violent move. But at that time the voting was done by colonies, and it soon appeared that the Declaration, much amended, would finally be passed by most of them.
At last, on the Fourth of July, 1776, the Declaration was put up to be voted upon. Pennsylvania voted for independence, a majority of her representatives being favorable, and other colonies soon followed. Delaware had three delegates; but one of them, Caesar Rodney, was absent, over eighty miles from Philadelphia. McKean, one of the two others, burning with a desire to have the vote of his colony recorded in the affirmative, sent a man on a fast horse to bring him back. Ten minutes after receiving McKean’s message Rodney was in the saddle, and, riding all night, he reached Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, just in time to secure the vote of Delaware in favor of independence.
Although it was on July 4, 1776, that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress, it was not signed by all the delegates present at that time; but they all signed before the end of the year.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1, No. 43. SERIAL No. 43
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
© The Knapp Co., Inc.
“I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT”—JOHN PAUL JONES
PAINTING BY HENRY MOSLER