table, was signed by the members." So that it happens,
fellow-citizens, that we pay these honors to their memory on
the anniversary of that day (2d of August) on which these
great men actually signed their names to the Declaration.
The Declaration was thus made, that is, it passed and was
adopted as an act of Congress, on the fourth of July; it was
then signed, and certified by the President and Secretary,
like other acts. The Fourth of July, therefore, is the anniversary of the Declaration. But the signatures of the members present were made to it, being then engrossed on parchment, on the second day of August. Absent members afterwards signed, as they came in; and indeed it bears the
names of some who were not chosen members of Congress
until after the fourth of July. The interest belonging to
the subject will be sufficient, I hope, to justify these details.[1]
36. The Congress of the Revolution, fellow-citizens, sat with closed doors, and no report of its debates was ever made. The discussion, therefore, which accompanied this great measure, has never been preserved, except in memory and by tradition. But it is, I believe, doing no injustice to others to say, that the general opinion was, and uniformly has been, that in debate, on the side of Independence, John Adams had no equal. The great author of the Declaration himself has expressed that opinion uniformly and strongly. "John Adams," said he, in the hearing of him who has now the honor to address you, "John Adams was our colossus on the floor. Not graceful, not elegant, not always fluent, in his public addresses, he yet came out with a power both of thought and of expression, which moved us from our seats."
37. For the part which he was here to perform, Mr. Adams doubtless was eminently fitted. He possessed a bold spirit, which disregarded danger, and a sanguine reliance on the goodness of the cause, and the virtues of the people, which
- ↑ The official copy of the Declaration, as engrossed and signed by the members of Congress, is framed and preserved in the Hall over the Patent-Office at Washington.
