crown should be totally suppressed, and all the powers of government exerted under the authority of the people of the colonies." John Adams at the time called this act or resolution "independence itself." The colonies were recommended by it to establish popular governments where they had not already done Indeed, the independence of the colonies took place in fact, if not in name, before the general independence of the whole was declared. Bancroft says that all the New York delegates except Alsop were personally ready to vote for independence, and were confident of their constituents. John Adams says that even Duane favored it, and he had been a half Tory all along; how much more, then, must Clinton and Livingston have been for it! The Documentary Declaration was debated in Committee of the Whole before being reported to the House; and there is not much doubt that in such committee the New-Yorkers voted for it. Wisner, one of the New York delegates, we know did. But it has been further stated to the disparagement of New York that on the 2d of July, when the vote on independence was actually taken, New York (the vote was by colonies, not by individuals) did not vote, the delegates from that colony, over their own signatures, with Clinton at their head, officially reporting as follows: "The important question of independence was agitated yesterday in a committee of the whole Congress, and this day will be finally determined in the House. We know the line of our conduct on this occasion; we have your instructions, and will faithfully pursue them." But this course was entirely proper, and for the delegates to have acted otherwise would have been to disobey the express commands of the New York Provincial Congress, which they represented. Upon the passage of the resolution of May 15 by the Continental Congress the New York delegates, on June 8, wrote home to ascertain the sentiments of their constituents on the question of independence, which was expected to come up shortly in that body. Meanwhile, on the 19th of June, a new Provincial Congress was elected by New York for the express purpose of acting on the question of independence, as the previous one, to whom the letter of the delegates was addressed, did not consider itself authorized so to do. The old Provincial Congress continued to sit for some days * after the new one was chosen, but of course can be excused for not authorizing their delegates in the Continental Congress to vote for independence. They purposely left it to the new Provincial Congress, which met at White Plains July 8, 1776, and which the very next day passed unanimously a resolution approving the Declaration of Independence. The fact, therefore, upon which considerable stress has been laid-that the New York delegates in the Continental Congress were not the voters for the adhesion of New York-is a purely private and local affair between them and their constituents; nor does it in the slightest degree affect the willingness of New York to declare itself independent. There was very little Toryism that dared to show itself to the public at this late day. Most of the leading loyalists had either left the State or were in hiding; and indeed, as a matter of fact, New York was as nearly unanimous at the time as either New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Finally, when on the 2d of July the vote was taken for formal independence, the New York delegates, who for local reasons could not act for their State, were probably much better disposed than those of Pennsylvania, who could act, and yet were intending to vote four against independence, and three for it; and it was only by great persuasion that two of the four were induced to absent themselves, so as to turn the minority into a majority. Though the Colony of New York, for the above reasons, failed to vote, the State failed not to act, for liberty and independ ence. The official record of the momentous proceedings of the 2d is in these words: 66 "TUESDAY, July 2, 1776. "The Congress resumed the consideration of the resolution from the Committee of the Whole, which was agreed to, as follows: 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." Resolved, That these United Colonies are, *The resolution reads as follows: " unanimously, that the reasons assigned by the ConResolved, tinental Congress for declaring the United Colonies free and independent States are cogent and conclusive; and that while we lament the cruel necessity which has rendered that measure unavoidable, we approve the same, and will, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, join with the other colonies in supporting it." "From the hour when that vote was taken and that record made," says Mr. McKean, very justly, in his Centennial Address, "the United States of America 'assumed among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them.'" In fact, the Second of July and not the Fourth should be the day for the celebration of our independence. That it would be was the opinion of the prominent men of that day. On the morning of the 1st of July, John Adams, anticipating independence in that day's vote, wrote from Pennsylvania to Archibald Bullock, "May Heaven prosper the new-born Republic, and make it more glorious than any former republics have been!" And on the 3d, after the adoption of the Resolution of Independence, he wrote to his wife, Mrs. Adams, as follows: "Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men. That will live as truth among all Americans who know and value the history of their country." And in the course of the same letter he adds, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival; be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore. ought also to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. ... Through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory; and posterity will triumph in this day's transactions." It At length, on the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence-the complement of the act of the 2d-having been drafted by Jefferson, was formally submitted to the delegates present. If, however, it be asked how has it come to pass that the 4th of July has been substituted as a day of celebration for the 2d, the real date of the birth of the United States as an independent nation, the answer is that the Resolution of the 2d was passed in private session, and remained unknown to the people generally until it and the Declaration were publicly proclaimed together. "There was nothing in the phrasing of the resolution to cause it to live in the popular memory, whilst there was everything in the Declaration to give it a vital hold upon the affections of the American people.' But there was still another cause for this. It has been well said that "the great importance, the decisive and controlling character of the Resolution of Independence adopted on the 2d of July, 1776, have been obscured to the popular vision by the splendor and fame of Jefferson's immortal Declaration of the reasons for the adoption of that Resolution. Yet Jefferson himself never allowed the one to overshadow in his estimation the importance of the other. The Declaration in his mind was intended to be 'an appeal to the tribunal of the world' as a justification of what had already been done. It was intended, he says, 'to be an expression of the American mind, and to give that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion, to place before mankind the common-sense of the subject in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.' Yet the Declaration of Independence has dislodged the Resolution of Independence from the place of precedence in the popular mind, and the Fourth of July has displaced the second as the nation's holiday and the patriot's high festival." We are now prepared to speak of the signing of the document known as the Declaration of Independence, and which so many of us have seen and examined in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. In thinking of that instrument one is apt to call up before him an august assemblage gravely seated around a table, with the Declaration spread out upon it, and each member of the Continental Congress in turn taking a pen and with great dignity affixing to it his name. Nothing, however, can be further from that which actually took place. Very few of the delegates, if indeed any, signed the original document on the 4th, and none signed the present one now in Independence Hall, for the very good reason that it was not then in existence. On July 19 Congress voted that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment. Jefferson, however, says that New York signed on July 15. Consequently New York must have signed the original copy of the Declaration before it had gone into the hands of the engrosser. On what day the work was done by the copyist is not shire. Nor were the six gentlemen last named at that time members. The five for Pennsyl vania were appointed delegates by the ConMr. Thornton entered Congress for the first vention of that State on the 26th of July; and time on the 4th of November following, when the names of Henry Wisner, of New York, and Thomas McKean, of Delaware, were not printed as subscribers, though both were present and voted for Independence.”* The truth is, the Declaration of Inde much less importance than now; nor did the signers dream of its becoming a shrine almost of worship at the present day. It known. All that is certainly known is that on the 2d of August Congress had the document as engrossed. This is the document in existence now in Independence Hall. It is on parchment, or something that the trade calls parchment. On that day (August 2) it was signed by all the members present. The original Declaration is lost, or rather was probably purposely destroyed by Congress. All the signatures were made anew. When the business of signing was ended is not known.pendence was considered at that time of One, Matthew Thornton, from New Hampshire, signed it in November, when he became a member for the first time; and Thomas McKean, from Delaware, as he says himself, did not sign till January, 1777. Indeed, this signing was, in effect, what at the present day would be called a "test oath." The principles of many of the new delegates coming into Congress from the different States were not known with certainty-some of them might be Tories in disguise-and thus each one was required on first entering Congress to sign the Declaration. In January, 1777, an authenticated copy, with the names of all the signers, was sent to each State for signatures a fact which may have put a stop to the business of signing. It shows, however, the little importance that was attached to this ceremony, that Robert R. Livingston was one of the committee of five that reported the Declaration, and yet did not sign it, unless his signature is lost with the original document. Dickinson drafted the Declaration of 1775, as Mr. *The following is the full text of the letter. If Moore seems to think, it is singular that he should have voted against the one of 1776, as this lettermost excellent authority-asserts. "PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 22d, 1813. "DEAR SIR,-Your favor of the 22d last month, with a copy of the Journal of the Congress at New York in October, 1765, printed in the Baltimore Register, came safe to hand. Not having heard of this publication, I had the proceedings of that body (not the whole) reprinted here about 2 months ago from a copy I found in the 1st volume of American Tracts, contained in four volumes octavo, edited by J. Almon, of London, in 1767. Such an important transaction should not be unknown to the future historian. "I recollect what passed in Congress in the beginning of July, 1776, respecting Independence; it was not as you have conceived. On Monday, the 1st of July, the question was taken in the Committee of the Whole, when the State of Pennsylvania, represented by seven gentlemen then present, voted But I am not delving in the field of con- ag. it; Delaware, having then only two representajecture. The same questions seem to have tives present, was divided; all the other states voted occurred as early as 1813, when Thomas Rod- in favor of it. Whereupon without delay I sent an ney wrote to Governor Thomas McKean uncle, Cæsar Rodney, Esquire, the remaining memexpress (at my private expense) for your honored a delegate from Delaware, and afterward ber for Delaware, whom I met at the State-house President of Congress and Governor of door in his boots and spurs as the members were Pennsylvania-asking why his name was assembling; after a friendly salutation (without a not among the list of the signers in the word on the business) we went into the Hall of Congress together, and found we were among the latest; Journal of Congress. To this letter Gov-proceedings immediately commenced, and after a ernor McKean replied, under date of August 22, 1813, as follows: "Now that I am on this subject, I will tell you something not generally known. In the printed public Journal of Congress for 1776, Vol. II., it would appear that the Declaration of Independence was signed on the 4th of July by the members whose names are there inserted. But the fact is not so, for no person signed it on that day, nor for many days after; and among the names subscribed one was against it, Mr. Reed, and seven others were not in Congress on that day, viz., Messrs. Morris, Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor, and Ross, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Thornton, of New Hamp few minutes the great question was put; when the vote for Delaware was called your uncle arose and said, 'As I believe the voice of my constituents and of all sensible and honest men is in favor of Independence, my own judgment concurs with them, I vote for Independence,' or in words to the same effect. The State of Pennsylvania on the 4th of July, there being only five members present (Messrs Dickinson and Morris, who had, in the Committee of the Whole, voted against Independence, were absent), voted for it, three to two, Messrs Willing and Humphreys in the negative. Unanimity in the thirteen states, an all-important point on so great an occasion, was thus obtained; the dissention of a single state might have produced very dangerous consequences. "Now that I am on this subject," etc. He, the swan of Dorian song, With the common feasters' throng Lay, not wholly mingling, silent, Musing great thoughts in his poet heart. Slowly, at the chief's command, Glancing half in scorn the while, “Sing my wars, my victories." Tribute laid on vanquished Phere's lords. Now a nobler music flows, For to worthier themes he rose— "Thus," he cries, "in earlier days Polydeuces in Therapnæ Thus with plumes of triumph decked his brow!" Then in melting strains he told Of the Twins, the Dioscuri, How the prison bonds of hell And, thenceforth, the Twins alternate Life in Heaven and death in Hades share: How their hero spirits reign, Worshipped in Olympia's fane; And their Twin Star o'er the Ægean Gleaming grants the storm - vext seaman's prayer. Breathless hung the sobered throng Only Cranon's lord ungracious Deemed his praise by praise of others marred. "Friend," he sneers, "take half thy fee: Half thy song was given to me: Let thy Twins, thy Dioscuri, Pay, themselves, their share of thy reward." At the brutal prince's jest At the door two horsemen ask for thee.” Down it crashed upon them all: All but him. That Voice had saved him. Thus the Dioscuri paid their fee. WHE lity as the eager American must cross the Atlantic to obtain. No Englishman feels these things as the American feels them; the antiquity, as Hawthorne says, is our novelty. But beyond all the charm of the associations this thought always recurs― what love of their convictions, what devotion to their own faith, must have been needed to drive the educated Puritan clergymen from such delicious retreats to encounter the ocean, the forest, and the Indians! THE SECOND GENERATION OF ENGLISHMEN IN AMERICA. HEN a modern American makes a grave-stones-all speak of such tranquilpilgrimage, as I have done, to the English village church at whose altars his ancestors once ministered, he brings away a feeling of renewed wonder at the depth of conviction which led the Puritan clergy to forsake their early homes. The exquisitely peaceful features of the English rural landscape-the old Norman church, half ruined, and in this particular case restored by aid of the American descendants of that high-minded emigrant; the old burial-ground that surrounds it, a haunt of such peace as to make death seem doubly restful; the ancestral oaks; the rooks that soar above them; the flocks of sheep drifting noiselessly among the ancient VOL. LXVII.-No. 398.-14 Yet there was in the early emigration to every American colony quite another admixture than that of learning and refinement; a sturdy yeoman element, led |