Fifty-Six

On July 4^th, 1776 thirteen British colonies signed the Declaration of Independence. These were thirteen separate government entities that had became totally dismayed with British rule. Earlier in the year, despite the battles already fought, there had been hopes of reconciliation. However, the King's actions pushed the colonies to seek freedom. The states sent delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The states represented at this Congress were:

• Massachusetts
  
• New Hampshire
  
• Connecticut
  
• Rhode Island
  
• New York
  
• New Jersey
  
• Pennsylvania
  
• Delaware
  
• Maryland
  
• Virginia
  
• South Carolina
  
• North Carolina
  
• Georgia
  

As the mood for independence grew in the colonies, the first complication arose in the fact that none of the delegates were authorized to work on independence by the bodies that sent them to Philadelphia. In fact, some of these delegates were expressly directed not to discuss independence. While American soldiers fought British troops and German mercenaries, the Continental Congress politically fought among themselves to find a path to independence.

This meant taking the fight back home to the assemblies to provide new instructions that allowed for the debate and vote upon the subject of independence. Starting in April, North Carolina became the first colony to approve their delegation to work for independence from Britain. Rhode Island became the first state to declare itself independent from British rule on May 4^th, 1776. Many similar declarations, instructions, and even court orders called for colonial independence.

The middle states of Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania remained resistant to the idea of independence. Tired of these states opposition, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed that states that did not have a government that wanted to seek independence could choose to elect a new government that did. John Adams of Massachusetts seconded the measure and the resolution passed.

Still there was much debate after the resolution. Some thought that declaring independence was still premature. One popular argument called for seeking foreign aid as the first priority. In June, the middle states still had no authorization to act on independence and delegations threatened to leave. On June 10^th, the Congress agreed to postpone legislation on independence, though a committee was authorized to work on a document announcing and explaining independence.

While this document was being produced the people of New Jersey and Pennsylvania both elected new assemblies. These new governments authorized their delegates to seek independence. Samuel Chase of Maryland went home and worked to convince the state assembly to approve independence and they did. Only New York remained in opposition to declaring themselves free of Great Britain. This was further complicated, when the New York assembly had to vacate New York due to British military advances.

While this transpired a committee composed of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut were authorized by Congress to work on a draft. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft and met with the committee. After that meeting Jefferson incorporated changes and this document was presented to the Congress, where it was tabled by order of that same Congress.

On July 1^st, 1776, debate for independence was initiated. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania made one last speech urging that Articles of Confederation be completed and foreign aid sought out prior to any declarations to the English crown. John Adams countered this speech and called for an immediate vote.

A vote followed. The rules of the Second Continental Congress allowed each state to make one vote. Each state's delegation voted amongst themselves to determine whether they approved a formal declaration of independence or not. Nine states voted in favor of the measure, with Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposing the action. New York's delegation had to abstain from taking a vote, without instructions from the New York Assembly and Delaware had a tie and therefore did not vote. The majority presided, but Robert Henry Lee sought a unanimous decision and delayed the vote for a day.

South Carolina reversed its position the next day. The Pennsylvania delegation saw two of its members abstain their votes which provided a majority in favor of declaring independence. A Caesar Rodney of the Delaware delegation arrived in Philadelphia and broke the tie in favor of Independence. New York still had not received new instructions and would only abstain from voting. It would take another week for instructions to arrive permitting the New York delegation to vote favorably.

Thus on July 2^nd, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from England. Now the debate on Jefferson's draft could begin. The debate carried on into the next day and on the day following that the Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. The document was read before the Congress and a new nation was born.

Much debate exists regarding when the declaration was signed. John Adams. Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson all wrote the signing of the document occurred on July 4^th. The signed declaration displays July 4^th in its' header. In 1821 the Secret Journals of Congress were published. This source indicated that the actual signing occurred August 2^nd, 1776. Other arguments suggest that some members signed on July 4^th, while others signed when they were able to do so and that the task took until August to be completed.

No matter when they signed, fifty-six American patriots did sign the declaration. These men were:

Name	State	Position
John Hancock	Massachusetts	President of the Second Continental Congress
Josiah Bartlett	New Hampshire
William Whipple	New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton	New Hampshire
Samuel Adams	Massachusetts
John Adams	Massachusetts
Robert Treat Paine	Massachusetts
Elbridge Gerry	Massachusetts
Steven Hopkins	Rhode Island
William Ellery	Rhode Island
Roger Sherman	Connecticut
Samuel Huntingdon	Connecticut
William Williams	Connecticut
Oliver Wolcott	Connecticut
William Floyd	New York
Phillip Livingston	New York
Francis Lewis	New York
Lewis Morris	New York
Richard Stockton	New Jersey
John Witherspoon	New Jersey
Francis Hopkinson	New Jersey
John Hart	New Jersey
Abraham Clark	New Jersey
Robert Morris	Pennsylvania
Benjamin Rush	Pennsylvania
Benjamin Franklin	Pennsylvania
John Morton	Pennsylvania
George Clymer	Pennsylvania
James Smith	Pennsylvania
George Taylor	Pennsylvania
James Wilson	Pennsylvania
George Ross	Pennsylvania
George Read	Delaware
Caesar Rodney	Delaware
Thomas McKean	Delaware
Samuel Chase	Maryland
William Paca	Maryland
Thomas Stone	Maryland
Charles Carroll	Maryland
George Wythe	Virginia
Richard Henry Lee	Virginia
Thomas Jefferson	Virginia
Benjamin Harrison	Virginia
Thomas Nelson Jr.	Virginia
Francis Lightfoot Lee	Virginia
Carter Braxton	Virginia
William Hopper	North Carolina
Joseph Hewes	North Carolina
John Penn	North Carolina
Edward Rutledge	South Carolina
Thomas Heyward, Jr.	South Carolina
Thomas Lynch, Jr.	South Carolina
Arthur Middleton	South Carolina
Button Gwinnett	Georgia
Lyman Hall	Georgia
George Walton	Georgia

American Declaration of Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776.
A Declaration
By the Representatives of the
United states of America,
In general Congress assembled.

When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands
which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
John Hancock, President.

Attest.
Charles Thomson, Secretary.

Philadelphia: Printed by John Dunlap