THE STORY OF THE SIGNING. forced marches to reach Philadelphia in time for some special vote. There lie before me the unpublished papers of one of the signers of the great Declaration, and these papers comprise the diaries of several such journeys. Their simple records rarely include bursts of patriotism or predictions of national glory, but they contain many plaintive chron- icles of bad beds and worse food, mingled with pleasant glimpses of wayside chat, and now and then a bit of character-painting that recalls the jovial narratives of Fielding. Sometimes they give a passing rumor of " the glorious news of the surrendering of the Colonel of the Queen's Dragoons with his whole army," but more commonly they cele- brate " milk toddy and bread and butter" after a wetting, or " the best dish of Bohea tea I have drank for a twelvemonth." When they arrived at Philadelphia, the delegates put up their horses, changed their riding gear for those habiliments which Trumbull has im- mortalized, and gathered to Independence Hall to greet their brother delegates, to interchange the gossip of the day, to repeat Dr. Franklin's last anecdote or Francis Hop- kinson's last gibe ; then proceeding, when the business of the day was opened, to lay the foundation for a new nation. "Before the igth of April, 1775," said Jefferson, ' I had never heard a whisper of a disposition to separate from the mother- country." Washington said : " When I first took command of the army (July 3, 1775), I abhorred the idea of independence ; but I am now fully convinced that nothing else will save us." It is only by dwelling on such words as these that we can measure that vast educational process which brought the American people to the Declaration of Independence, in 1776. The Continental Congress, in the earlier months of that year, had for many days been steadily drifting on toward the distinct asser- tion of separate sovereignty, and had declared it irreconcilable with reason and a good con- science for the colonists to take the oaths re- quired for the support of the Government under the Crown of Great Britain. But it was not till the 7th of June, that Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, rose and read these resolutions : " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all alle- giance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. " That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign alliances. " That a plan of confederation be pre- pared and transmitted to the respective colonies for their consideration and appro- bation." These resolutions were presented under direct instructions from the Virginia Assem- bly, the delegates from that colony selecting Mr. Lee as their spokesman.* They were at once seconded, probably after previous understanding, by John Adams, of Massa chusetts, Virginia and Massachusetts bein then the leading colonies. It was a bold act, for it was still doubtful whether any- thing better than a degrading death would await these leaders, if unsuccessful. Gage had written, only the year before, of the prisoners left in his hands at Bunker Hill, that " their lives were destined to the cord." Indeed, the story runs that a similar threat was almost as frankly made to the son of Mr. Lee, then a schoolboy in England. He wa one day standing near one of his teache when some visitor asked the question: "What boy is that?" "He is the son of Richard Henry Lee, of America," the teacher replied. On this the visitor put his hand on the boy's head and said : " We shall yet see your father's head upon Tower Hill," to which the boy answered: "You may have it when you can get it."t This was the way in which the danger was regarded in England ; and we know that Congress directed the Secretary to omit from the journals the names of the mover and sec- onder of these resolutions. The record only says, " Certain resolutions respecting independence being moved and seconded, Resolved, That the consideration of them be deferred until to-morrow morning ; and that the members be enjoined to attend punctu- ally at ten o'clock, in order to take the same into their consideration." On the next day the discussion came up promptly and was continued through Satur- day, June 8. and on Monday, June 10. The resolutions were opposed, even with bitter- ness, by Robert Livingston, of New York, by Dickinson and Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and by Rutledge, of South Carolina. The latter is reported to have said privately, "that it required the impudence of a New Englander for them in their disjointed state to propose a treaty to a nation now at
- Lee's " Life of R. H. Lee," i., 169.
t Lossing, in Harper's Magazine, iii., 153.
