History of the United States

by John Clark Ridpath

Jefferson reading the Declaration in Committee.

Declaration of Independence.

10. On the 1st of July the committee's report was laid before Congress. On the next day Lee's resolution was adopted. During the 3d the formal declaration was debated with great spirit. The discussion was resumed on the 4th, and at two o'clock in the afternoon the Declaration of American Independence was adopted by a unanimous vote.

11. The old bellman of the State House rang out the note of freedom to the nation. The multitudes caught the signal and answered with shouts. Everywhere the declaration was received with enthusiastic applause. At Philadelphia the king's arms were torn down and burned in the street. At Williamsburg, Charleston, and Savannah there were bonfires. At Boston the declaration was read in Faneuil Hall. At New York the populace pulled down the statue of George III. and cast it into bullets. Washington ordered that the declaration be read at the head of each brigade.

12. The leading principles of the Declaration of Independence are these: That all men are created equal; that governments are instituted for the welfare of the people; that the people have a right to alter their government; that the government of George III. had become destructive of liberty; that the king's tyranny over his American subjects was no longer endurable; and that, therefore, the United Colonies of America are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.

Operations about New York.

13. Early in July, General Howe landed a force of nine thousand men on Staten Island. Thither Clinton came from the siege of Charleston, and Admiral Howe from England. The British force in the vicinity of New York amounted to thirty thousand men. Nearly half of them were Hessians. Washington's army was greatly inferior in numbers and discipline.

14. Lord Howe had been instructed to try conciliatory measures with the Americans. First, he sent to the American camp a dispatch directed to George Washington, Esquire. Washington refused to receive a communication which did not recognize his official position. Howe then sent another message, addressed to George Washington, etc., etc., etc.; and the bearer insisted that and-so-forth might mean General of the American Army. But Washington sent the officer away.

Battle of Long Island.

15. Lord Howe and his brother at once began hostilities. On the 22d of August, the British, to the number of ten thousand, landed on Long Island. The Americans, about eight thousand strong, were posted in the vicinity of Brooklyn. On the morning of the 27th of August, Grant's division of the British army was met by General Stirling with fifteen hundred men, and the battle at once began, but there was no decisive result. General Heister advanced beyond Flatbush, and engaged the main body of the Americans, under General Sullivan. Here the Hessians gained little or no ground until Sullivan was alarmed by the noise of battle on his left and rear.