Franklin,
Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, was appointed. On the
twenty-fifth of June, a Declaration of the Deputies of Pennsylvania, in
favor of Independence, was read. On the twenty-eighth, the credentials
of the delegates from New Jersey, in which they were instructed to favor
Independence, were presented; and on the first of July similar
instructions to the Maryland delegates were laid before Congress. At
this time Congress proceeded to consider the Declaration and resolution
reported by the committee. The Declaration was carefully considered, and
materially amended in committee of the whole, on the first, second,
third, and fourth, when it was finally adopted. It was then signed by
the president and secretary, and copies were transmitted to the several
colonies. The order for its engrossment, and for the signature by every
member, was not passed until the nineteenth of July, and it was not
really signed until the second of August following. It is not likely,
considering the circumstances, and the known character of the members of
Congress, among whom may be mentioned John Hancock, Samuel Adams,
Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris, Benjamin Harrison, Elbridge Gerry, John
Witherspoon, a descendant of John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, Charles
Carroll, and Samuel Huntington,--all distinguished for coolness,
probity, and patriotism,--that the immortal document can contain one
thought or word unworthy its sacred associations, and the character of
the American people!
And it is among the alarming symptoms of public sentiment that the
Declaration of Independence is by some publicly condemned, and by others
quietly accepted as entitled to just the consideration, and no more,
that is given to an excited advocate's speech to a jury, or a
demagogue's electioneering harangue, or the daily contribution of the
partisan editor to the stock of political capital that aids the election
of his favorite candidates.
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