tee of the Whole, into which they immediately resolved themselves, and passed that day and Monday, the 10th, in warm and vehement debates.

The conflict was painful. The grounds of opposition to the measure affected its expediency as to time, rather than its absolute propriety, and were strenuously urged by Dickinson and Wilson of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New-York, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, and some others. The leading advocates of the immediate declaration of independence were Mr Jefferson, John and Samuel Adams, Lee, Wythe, and some others. The heads only of the arguments delivered on this interesting occasion, have been preserved -by one man alone, Mr Jefferson, and they owe their first disclosure to the world, to his posthumous publication.*

The tenor of the debate indicated such a strength of opposition to the measure, that it was deemed impolitic to press it at this time. The Colonies of New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, were not yet matured for falling from the parent stem, but as they were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most prudent to wait awhile for them. The final decision of the question was therefore postponed to the 1st of July. But, that this might occasion as little delay as possible, it was ordered that a committee be appointed to prepare a DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, in accordance with the motion. Mr Jefferson having the highest number of votes, was placed at the head of this Committee; the other members were John Adams, Dr Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The Committee met, and unanimously solicited Mr Jefferson to prepare the draught of the Declaration alone. He drew it; but before submitting it to the Committee, he communicated it separately to Dr

* See Vol. I, Jefferson's Works.

Franklin and Mr Adams, with a view to avail himself of the benefit of their criticisms. They criticised it, and suggested two or three alterations, merely verbal, intended to soften somewhat the original phraseology. The Committee unanimously approved it; and on Friday, the 28th of June, he reported it to Congress, when it was read and ordered to lie on the table.

On Monday the first of July, agreeably to assignment, the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and resumed the consideration of the preliminary motion. It was debated again through the day, and finally carried in the affirmative by the votes of New-Hampshire Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, New-Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. South Carolina and Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware had but two members present, and they were divided. The Delegates from New-York declared they were for it themselves, and were assured their constituents were for it; but that their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when reconciliation was still the general object, they were enjoined by them to do nothing which should impede that object. They therefore thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to withdraw from the question; which was granted them. In this state of things, the Committee rose and reported their resolution to the House. Mr Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested that the decision might be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, though they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake of unanimity. The ultimate decision by the House was accordingly postponed to the next day, July 2d, when it was again moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the mean time, a third member had come post from the Delaware counties, and turned the vote of that Colony in favor of the resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that morning from Pennsylvania,

her vote also was changed; so that the whole twelve Colonies, who were authorised to vote at all, gave their voice for it; and within a few days, July 9th, the Convention of New-York approved of it, and thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawal of her Delegates from the question.

It should be observed that these fluctuations and the final vote were upon the original motion, to declare the Colonies independent.

Congress proceeded the same day, July 2d, to consider the Declaration of Independence, which had been reported the 28th of June, and ordered to lie on the table. The debates were again renewed with great violence greater than before. Tremendous was the ordeal through which the title-deed of our liberties, perfect as it had issued from the hands of its artificer, was destined to pass. Inch by inch, was its progress through the House disputed. Every dictum of peculiar political force, and almost every expression was made a subject of acrimonious animadversion by the anti-revolutionists. On the other hand, the champions of Independence contended with the constancy of martyrs, for every tenet and every word of the precious gospel of their faith. Among the latter class, the Author of the Declaration himself has assigned to John Adams the station of preeminence. Thirty-seven years afterwards, he declared that Mr Adams was the pillar of its support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered.' At another time, he said 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 moyed us from our seats.'

The debates were continued with unremitting heat through the 2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, till on the evening of the last the most important day perhaps, politically speaking, that the world ever saw - they were

brought to a close. The principle of unanimity finally prevailed; reciprocal concessions, sufficient to unite all on the solid ground of the main purpose, were made. In the generous spirit of compromise, however, some of the most splendid specifications in the American Charter were surrendered. On some of these it is well known the author himself set the highest value, as recognizing principles to which he was enthusiastically partial, and which were almost peculiar to him. His scorching malediction against the traffickers in human blood, stood conspicuously among the latter. The light in which he viewed these depredations upon the original, may be gathered from the following memorandum of the transaction; in which too, he betrays a fact in relation to New England, that is not generally known.

The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England, were struck out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out, in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those censures; for though the people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.'

For the purpose of comparing the original, with the amended form, the Declaration shall be presented as it came from the hands of the author. The parts stricken out by Congress are printed in italics, and inclosed in brackets; and those inserted by them are placed in the margin. The sentiments of men are known by what they reject, as well as by what they receive, and the comparison in the present case, will demonstrate the singular forwardness of one mind on certain great principles of Political Science.

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 [inherent certain and] inalienable 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 a 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 happiPrudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown 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 [begun at a distinguished period and] 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.

ness.