the schemes of an intriguing as well as c... enemy. We shall then, too, be on a proper foring to treat with Great Britain;, for there reason to.conclude that the pride of that coun will be less hurt by treating with the Americas States for terms of peace than with those wh she denominates 'rebellious subjects' for terms of accommodation. It is our delaying it that e Great Britain. They had earnestly labored for the maintenance of local self-government; now they labored as zealously for the establishment of an independent nation here. Washington and his fellow-officers in the field spoke out boldly and warmly on the subject. General Greene wrote to a delegate in Congress from Rhode Island: "The king breathes revenge, and threatens us with destruction; Americans must raise an empire of per-courages her to hope for conquest, and our be.. manent duration, supported upon the grand pillars of truth, freedom and religion." Washington declared that when he took command of the Continental army in the summer of 1775, he “abhorred an idea of independence;" "but," he wrote, "I am now fully convinced that nothing else will save us." The flame of desire for independence was suddenly kindled in almost every bosom; and it was fanned by the brave, wise and earnest words of Thomas Paine, the son of an English Quaker, who had lately come to America as a literary adventurer and emissary of human freedom. In the name of "Common Sense" he put forth a powerful appeal in favor of independence, in the beginning of 1776, in terse, sharp, incisive and vigorous sentences, and in language that might be comprehended by the plainest mind. He em bodied the sentiments of reflecting men and women throughout the Colonies in telling words like these: "The nearer any government approaches to a republic, the less business there is for a king; in England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places. Volumes have been written on the struggle between England and America. Arms must decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent but accepted the challenge. The sun. never shone on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent-of at least oneeighth part of the globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in it even to the end of time. . . It matters little now what the King of England either says or does. He hath wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and conscience beneath his feet, and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and cruelty, procured for himself a universal hatred. . . . Independence is now the only bond that will keep us together. We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally shut against wardness tends to prolong the war. . . . Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectua.; prayers have been rejected with disdain; reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Bring the doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone ot nature; can you hereafter love, honor, and f fully serve the power that hath carried fire a: ! sword into your land? Ye that tell us of harmors, can ye restore to us the time that is past? T blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ''Tis time to part.' The last chord is now broken; the people of England are presenting addresses against us. A government of our own is our natural right. Ye that love mankind, this dare oppose not only tyranny but the tyrant, stan! forth! Every spot of the old world is overla with oppression; Freedom hath been hunted round the globe; Asia and Africa hath long expelled her; Europe regards her like a stranger: and England hath given her warning to dejar. O! receive the fugitive and prepare an asylam for mankind." This powerful essay was printed and scattere broadcast over the land. Its effects were wonderful. Legislative bodies soon began to move in the matter. The Continental Congress felt the sentiment of desire for independence keenly, but actel with great caution for a while. When, in Feleu ary, 1776, Wilson of Pennsylvania proposed tɔ send forth an address of Congress to the people, in which they should disclaim all idea of inde pendence, the flame burst forth. The constit ency everywhere were found to be ahead of the legislatures in aspirations for independence. The proposition of Wilson brought out Har son, of Virginia, in Congress. "We have hobbled on," he said, "under a fatal attachment to Great Britain. I felt that attachment as much as any man, but I feel a stronger one to my country." Honest George Wythe, from the same Colony, fired by righteous indignation, exclaimed, after asserting the rights of the Americans: "We may invite foreign powers to make treaties of commerce with us; but before the measure is adopted, it is to be considered in what character we shall treat! As subjects of Great Britain? As rebels? No: we must declare ourselves a free people !" These were the first brave words in favor of independence spoken on the floor of Congress, and they were echoed and reëchoed from a thousand voices throughout the land. When, in that Hall, Mr. Wythe offered a resolution "That the colonies have a right to contract alliances," timid ones exclaimed, "That means independence!" "So it does," said the bold Wythe; and the question whether the resolution should be considered was carried by a vote of seven Colonies against five. The leaven worked vigorously, and, in less than a month afterwards, Silas Deane, of Connecticut, was appointed by the Committee of Secret Correspondence as a political and commercial agent to operate in France and elsewhere, and to procure necessary supplies of every kind for an army of twenty-five thousand men. Already an emissary from France had been sent to America from King Louis, whose keen ministers saw in this quarrel, and the probable dismemberment of the British Empire, the opportunity for France to be revenged on England for despoiling her of her broad domain in America. Outside of Congress the desire for independence rapidly became a glowing flame in the bosom of colonial society. North Carolinians first took positive public action on the subject of independence, as they had done the year before. On the 22d of April, a provincial convention in that colony authorized the representatives of that province in Congress "To concur with the other colonies in declaring independence." On the very next day the people of Massachusetts, in convention assembled, did the same. Those of Rhode Island and Virginia instructed their representatives to propose independence. Those of Connecticut told their delegates to assent to independence. The Provincial Congress of New Hampshire instructed their delegates to agree to independence, and those of New Jersey, who had just been elected, were left to act in accordance with the dictates of their own judgment. The subject of independence had been hinted at in the Legislature of Pennsylvania several months before, when the startled conservatives in that body procured the adoption of instructions to their delegates, adverse to that idea. These restrictions were now removed, but the delegates of Pennsylvania received no official instructions on the subject. The Maryland Convention, so late as the close of May, positively forbade their delegates voting for independence; but at the close of June the pressure of public opinion was so great that the Maryland delegates were in accord with those of Virginia. No official action was had on the subject in Georgia, South Carolina, and Delaware, but the people of those provinces were in favor of independence. Their delegates were left to be governed by their own feelings and judgment. The independent sovereignty of Congress had been asserted by their treatment of William Franklin, son of Dr. Franklin, and Governor of New Jersey, who, by their order, had been arrested and made a prisoner of State in Connecticut. This was one of the boldest measures of that body, for a royal governor or viceroy is the direct representative of the king. Early in May, John Adams moved in the Continental Congress "That it be recommended to the several assemblies and conventions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs hath hitherto been established, to adopt such a government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general." This, though bold, was not broad enough to form a basis for energetic action in favor of independence. It was a timid step forward. bolder man was needed for the occasion, and he soon appeared in the person of Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia. Moved by the instructions of his colony to propose independence, Mr. Lee rose in his place, in Independence Hall, on the morning of the 7th of June, 1776, and with his clear, musical voice, read aloud the resolution: "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; and that all political connection between us and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." As I have observed in a former paper, John Adams immediately seconded the resolution, but as both the mover and seconder would doubtless incur the hottest anger of their king, their names were not then entered upon the journal. Three days afterwards the consideration of the resolution was postponed until the first day of July next ensuing, and on the 11th a committee was appointed to prepare a declaration in accordance with the resolution, that should set forth the causes which impelled the colonies to separate from Great Britain. Mr. Lee would, undoubtedly, have been made chairman of that committee had he been present. On the evening of the 10th he received word by express that his wife was very ill, and he was compelled to ask leave of absence for a short time. It was granted, and on the morning of the 11th, the day when the committee was appointed, he set off for his home in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, a delegate from the same province, was first named on the committee, and became its chairman. Mr. Jefferson's colleagues on that committee were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. After a full discussion of the topics to be embodied in the declaration, the writing of the document was entrusted to Mr. Jefferson. "It will naturally be inquired," Mr. Adams wrote, "how it happened that he was appointed on a committee of such importance. There were more reasons than one. Mr. Jefferson had the reputation of a masterly pen; he had been chosen a delegate in Virginia in consequence of a very handsome public paper which he had written for the House of Burgesses, which had given him the character of a fine writer. Another reason was, that Mr. Richard Henry Lee was not beloved by the most of his colleagues from Virginia, and Mr. Jefferson was sent up to rival and supplant him. This could be done only with the pen, for Mr. Jefferson could stand no competition with him, or any one else, in elocution or public debate." He had then been a member of Congress about a year, but had attended to his duties very irregularly, and when there had never spoken in public. "During the whole time I sat with him in Congress," Adams wrote, "I never heard him utter three sentences together." Mr. Jefferson was, at that time, a little past thirty-three years of age; tall, wiry, lithe in limb, with "sandy" hair and rather sharp features. He occupied a parlor and bedroom ready-furnished in the new three-storied brick house belonging to Mr. Graaf, a bricklayer, who had then lately been married. The house, yet standing, is on Market street, south side, between Seventh and Eighth streets, and the rooms which Mr. Jefferson occupied are on the second floor. In that little parlor, where he habitually performed his writing, Mr. Jefferson made the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, using for the purpose the minutes of a sub-committee, com posed of himself, Mr. Adams, and Dr. Frack John Adams says that sub-committee apporte Mr. Jefferson and himself to "draw them t in form and clothe them in a proper dress." Tory made minutes of the several topics, and submitted them to the sub-committee, when Mr. Jeffers desired Mr. Adams to take them to his lodging, and make the draft. and make the draft. This Mr. Adams de ne to do, and gave several reasons for it, the chie of which was that he had "a great opinion of the elegance of the pen of Mr. Jefferson, and none t all of his own." Mr. Jefferson took the minutes, and in a day or two produced the draft. On the first of July Mr. Lee's motion w taken up in Congress, sitting in Independere Hall, for consideration in Committee of the Wha House, Benjamin Harrison of Virginia father President Harrison) in the chair. Jefferson's dr of the Declaration was submitted at the save time, and for three consecutive days it was deated by paragraphs seriatim. Many alterations, omissions and amendments were made in Cửa mittee of the Whole. A whole paragraph which condemned the slave-trade and charged the king with the perpetuation of slavery in the colo "by prostituting his negative for suppressing ans legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain the execrable commerce," was stricken out. The charge was not founded in truth, and was properly omitted. Referring to the many alterations that were made, Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to Richard Henry Lee, written on the 8th of Julv 1776, in which he sent that gentleman copies of the Declaration as he had written it, and as it was altered and adopted, said, "You will judge whether it is the better or the worse for the critics." On the 2d of July Mr. Lee's resolution wa adopted, and two days afterward the Declaration as amended was also adopted by the unanimous vote of the colonies represented, though not be the unanimous vote of the delegates present. O the afternoon of the 4th, when the great desd was accomplished-when the United Colonies Congress assembled had decreed the birth of a nation-they perceived the necessity of a nationa insignia, and resolved "That Dr. Franklin, Mr J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for a seal for the United States of America." For six years the States strugg for the independence they had then declared. before they possessed a seal, the token of supreme authority; and then the device was suggested by Sir, that while groping so long in the dark, an English nobleman. divided in our opinions, and now ready to sepa- On the day when the Declaration of Independence was adopted the members present who voted for it signed the "fair copy" of the document which had been engrossed on paper; but it was then published to the world with only the names of John Hancock, President of the Congress, and Charles Thomson, Secretary of that body, attached to it. It was ordered to be engrossed on parchment, and at the beginning of August, fifty-four delegates in the Congress signed it, and two others affixed their signatures afterwards. That parchment, with the precious writing upon it, has been preserved, but many of the signatures have faded to the verge of illegibility. It has been placed in Independence Hall, in which it was signed a hundred years ago, where the hundreds of thousands of visitors who will throng that Hall during the Centennial Exhibition may look upon it. On that parchment rested the vision of each man who signed it on that eventful day—tember, when all propositions were referred to a men who by their boldness, their wisdom, and their indomitable energy, made the great Centennial Exhibition to-day possible. May the sight of it inspire all beholders with gladness, for it was a glorious gospel of freedom then preached to the nations of the Earth! May it inspire every American to firmly resolve that henceforth Union and brotherhood by love shall prevail throughout our borders! The other most notable event that has occurred in Independence Hall was the sitting of a convention of delegates therein, in the summer of 1787, to devise a better form of government for the Republic. These delegates represented all the States excepting New Hampshire and Rhode Island. They met in May, and chose George Washington, a delegate from Virginia, the President. His associates were able statesmen, and they entered upon their duties with zeal when the convention was full, on the 24th of May. For some time they made very little progress. There were no There was a precedents to guide their action. great diversity of opinions respecting the application of principles and of expediency; and for a while it seemed probable that the convention would be dissolved without accomplishing anything. Some proposed a final adjournment, when the venerable Dr. Franklin, then long past eightyone years of age, arose in his place, and addressing the President said: "How has it happened, The Convention continued in session until Sep committee for revision and arrangement. It was completed on the 12th of September, and adopted by the Convention as the Fundamental Law of our land. Copies of the Constitution then framed were sent to the several State legislatures, to be by them submitted to the people for ratification. This was done, and in the spring of 1789 the national government was organized under the provisions of this National Constitution, with Washington as the first President of the Republic. These two great acts-the adoption and signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the adoption and signing of the National Constitution in that room, consecrated it forever as a shrine of human liberty, in which every aspirant for civil and religious freedom, of whatever hue, creed, or nationality, has an abiding interest. "This is the sacred fane wherein assembled The fearless champions on the side of Right; The Eastern, Northern, Southern sage and seer, Here rose the anthem which all nations hearing, Our continent repeats it to the world. That Hall has been devoted to various uses, and has undergone some transformations in feature since these two great events; but it has now been restored to its original condition under the able supervision of Col. Frank M. Etting, of Philadelphia. Visitors may see it as the fathers of the Republic saw saw it a hundred years ago, with the single exception of discerning upon its walls the portraits of all the Signers of the Declaration of Independence but two or three. These have been procured by Colonel Etting by persevering and persistent labor. REMARKS. The National Museum is certainly unique, and the success of Colonel Etting and his colaborers in the work of collecting precious relics of the early days of our country has been marAn intelligent visitor may spend hours in this one room with pleasure and profit, and then regret his inability to prolong his inspection of the historic treasures. The Colonel is entitled to, and will receive, the sincere grati NATIONAL MUSEUM. tude of every American for his noble labor of love in the restoration of Independence Hall and its surroundings-the labor has been incalculably great, and not only has he sought or received nothing in the way of pecuniary compensation, but he has actually contributed his private means liberally, in addition to his time and talents.-EDITOR. PATRICK HENRY-THE EARLIEST ADVOCATE OF INDEPENDENCE. BY WILLIAM WIRT HENRY. As the United States in the month of July celebrate the hundredth anniversary of their birthday as a nation, and are making preparations for its celebration which shall fill the ear of the world, the minds of all naturally turn to a comparison of our first estate with our last, and to a contemplation of our wonderful progress. One hundred years ago, within the lifetime of some now living, we were thirteen Colonies, stretching along the Atlantic coast, with less than three millions of inhabitants, without a navy, and without credit; aspiring to be independent States, but engaged in a doubtful struggle with the greatest power of the earth, involving our very existence as a nation. To-day we number thirtyeight States, extending from the lakes to the great gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with a population of forty millions; and in commerce, in arts, in resources, in civilization, in all that makes a people great, ranking amongst the foremost nations of the earth. Such a remarkable growth the world has never before witnessed. Many causes have operated to produce this result; but were we called on to name the one |