174. Independence slowly but surely becomes a Stern Necessity.—Now, if we recall all the wrongs as to taxation that we have read of in a previous chapter, and add to them this list of subsequent outrages, the preparations for a long war, the hiring of Hessians, and the incitement of Indians to fight us, we must see that our forefathers were compelled to regard England as their determined enemy. Such were the successive steps by which the old feeling of loyalty to the mother country gradually vanished, and bitter hostility took its place.
What should the colonies do to protect themselves? This was the all-important question. The people had been tending toward the conviction that the only remedy was to break off all connection with England and to be independent.
But it was a long while before this feeling became general. It was a steady and natural but slow growth. The public indignation, constantly strengthened by repeated British outrages, at last culminated in mature conviction—a conviction that the only course left us was to be wholly free, and to stand by ourselves among the nations of the earth.
As this conviction became stronger and stronger among the good people all along the narrow coast line from Boston to Charleston, it soon found expression in many ways. The few newspapers spoke out; public meetings were called to discuss it, and conventions dared to announce it.
Thomas Jefferson.
People learned at last that their chief enemy was the king. They saw that the controversy which began merely as a colonial struggle for their rights as British subjects had grown broader and deeper, till it became a contest for our rights as MEN and for the freedom of our entire country from British control. A pamphlet entitled "Common Sense," written by Thomas Paine, an Englishman who had recently arrived in America, had an enormous sale and exerted a powerful influence. It abounded in ready wit, sharp reasoning, and rough eloquence. It stimulated the longing for independence and the determination to be free or die. In May, 1775, the people of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina were the first to pass resolutions advocating independence. They sent them to their delegates in Congress; but these at that early day did not dare present them.
In May, 1776, Congress, then in Philadelphia, following the trend of public opinion, advised the colonies to consider themselves as no longer holding any powers under the authority of Great Britain. That was about the same as a declaration of independence. Many colonies accordingly set up state governments of their own without asking the king's consent.
175. Steps taken for a Formal Declaration of Independence.—The second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. Early in June, 1776, one of the delegates, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, offered a resolution that "these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states." John Adams, of Massachusetts, seconded it in a powerful speech. Three weeks of delay, to enable some of the colonies to send in their approval, occurred before its adoption. Then a committee of five, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, who had been appointed to draw up a formal statement, presented the Declaration of Independence.
176. The Declaration of Independence; what it said to the World.—The simple and yet luminous words of this Declaration were written by Jefferson. His draft was prepared in his lodgings, on a little writing desk which still exists. Jefferson, in after years, delighted to tell how the final vote was hastened by the extremely hot weather and by the fact that there was a stable near by, and swarms of flies came in through the open windows and added much to the discomfort of the patriots already worn out with the debate and the heat.