The Declaration of Independence.—On July 1 Lee's motion was debated in Congress, John Adams speaking for an immediate declaration of independence and Dickinson for delay. When the debate closed, nine states voted in the affirmative. Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposed immediate action; the Delaware vote was a tie, and the New York delegates were excused from voting. The final vote was postponed until the next day. The arrival of Rodney of Delaware gave the vote of that state for the Declaration. Dickinson and Morris did not appear and the other delegates from Pennsylvania voted in the affirmative. The South Carolina delegates, influenced by news that a great British fleet was off New York, took matters in their own hands and voted for independence. New York alone stood out.
The congressional committee had entrusted the preparation of the Declaration to Thomas Jefferson. After it had undergone the fire of criticism, on the evening of July 4 the document was approved by twelve states. On the following day copies signed by President Hancock and Secretary Thomson were sent to the various assemblies. The other signatures were added later. Although the New York delegates had not voted for the Declaration, on July 9 the New York provincial congress approved it, completing the long chain of states which stretched along the Atlantic seaboard from Nova Scotia to East Florida.
Contents of the Declaration.—This immortal document begins by setting forth certain "self-evident truths" concerning the rights of mankind and the nature of government. Then follow in nearly thirty paragraphs a list of charges against King George III, and a review of the efforts of the colonies to obtain redress. The last paragraph declares, in the resounding words of Lee's Resolution, "That these United Colonies 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 totally dissolved." A new nation had been born.
READINGS
MILITARY EVENTS AND THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
Bolton, C.K., The Private Soldier under Washington; Channing, Edward, History of the United States, III, 155-206; Fiske, John, The American Revolution, I, 100-197; Greene, F.V., The Revolutionary War, 1-27; Journals of the Continental Congress (Worthington C. Ford, ed.), II-VI; Lecky, W.E.H., History of England in the Eighteenth Century, III, 461-500; Smith, J.H., Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony, I, 107-165; Trevelyan, G.O., The American Revolution, I, 254-390; Van Tyne, C.H., The American Revolution, 24-49; Winsor, Justin, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 1-274; Adams, C.F., Studies Military and Diplomatic, 1775-1865, pp. 1-21.
THE LOYALISTS
Flick, A.C., Loyalism in New York (Columbia University, Studies in History, etc., XIV, No. 1.); Tyler, M.C., "The Party of the Loyalists in the American Revolution," in The American Historical Review, I, 24-45; Van Tyne, C.H., The Loyalists in the American Revolution; Wallace, S., The United Empire Loyalists.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Friedenwald, H., The Declaration of Independence; Hazelton, J.H., The Declaration of Independence; Trevelyan, G.O., The American Revolution, II, 133-171; Van Tyne, C.H., The American Revolution, 50-101; Becker, C.L., The Eve of the Revolution, 200-256.