LXVIII June. Chase, now the foremost civilian in Maryland, the CHAP. ablest of their delegates in the continental congress, a friend to law not less than to liberty, ever attracted 1776. towards the lovers of established government, had always, on the question of independence, kept ahead of men who otherwise agreed with him. Guided by his clear understanding and vehement will, the patriots of all classes, the most eager and the laggards, joined hands. In May and the early part of June, the people, in county meetings, renounced the hope of reconciliation; listening to their voices, the committee of safety called a convention; and that body, assembling on the twenty first of June, placed itself in the closest relations with its constituents. On the request of any one delegate, the yeas and nays might be taken and entered in its journal; its debates and proceedings were public. Its measures for calling its militia into active service were prompt and efficient. On the afternoon of the day on which Moultrie repelled the British squadron from Charleston, it concurred with Virginia on the subject of independence, a confederation, treaties with foreign powers, and the reservation of the internal government of each colony to its own people; and five days later, while the continental congress was still considering the form of its declaration of independence, it directed the election of a new convention to create a government by the authority of the people only. July. CHAPTER LXIX. THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. CHAP. THE FIRST AND SECOND OF JULY, 1776. On the morning of the first of July, the day set apart for considering the resolution of independence, 1776. John Adams, confident as if the vote had been taken, July 2. invoked the blessing of heaven to make the new-born republic more glorious than any which had gone before. His heart melted with sorrow at the disasters. and sufferings of the army that had been in Canada; he knew that England having now recovered that province, commanded the upper lakes and the Mississippi; that she had a free communication with all the numerous tribes of Indians, extending along the frontiers of all the colonies, and would induce them to take up the hatchet, and by bloodshed and fire drive in the inhabitants upon the middle settlements, at a time when the coasts might be ravaged by the British navy, and a single day might bring the army before New York. Independence could be obtained only by a great expense of life; but the greater the danger, the LXIX. 1. stronger was his determination; for a free constitu- CHAP. tion of civil government could not be purchased at too dear a rate. He called to mind the fixed rule of 1776. July the Romans, never to send or receive ambassadors to treat of peace with their enemies while their affairs were in a disastrous situation; and he was cheered by the belief that his countrymen were of the same temper and principle. At the appointed hour the members, probably on that day fifty one in number, appeared in their places; among them the delegates lately chosen in New Jersey. The great occasion had brought forth superior statesmen; none of them passionate revolutionists, but men who joined the power of moderation to energy. After they had all passed away, their longevity was remarked as a proof of their calm and temperate nature; full two thirds of the New England representatives lived beyond seventy years; some of them to be eighty or ninety. Every colony was found to be represented, and the delegates of all but one had received full power of action. Comprehensive instructions, reaching the question of independence without explicitly using the word, had been given by Massachusetts in January, by South Carolina in March, by Georgia on the fifth of April. North Carolina, in the words of Cornelius Harnett, on the fourteenth of April, was the first to direct expressly its representatives in congress to concur in a declaration of independence. On the first of May, Massachusetts expunged the regal style from all public proceedings, and substituted the name of her "government and people;" on the fourth, Rhode Island more explicitly renounced allegiance, and made its delegates the rep LXIX. July 1. CHAP. resentatives of an independent republic; Virginia on the fifteenth, the very day on which John Adams in 1776. congress carried his measure for instituting governments by the sole authority of the people, gave her delegates at Philadelphia the positive direction to propose independence, and by a circular letter communicated her decision to all her sister colonies. The movement of Virginia was seconded almost in her words by Connecticut on the fourteenth of June, New Hampshire on the fifteenth, New Jersey on the twenty first, the conference of committees of Pennsylvania on the twenty fourth, Maryland on the twenty eighth. Delaware on the twenty second of March had still hoped for conciliation; but on the fourteenth or the fifteenth of June, from the imperfect state of her records the exact date is unknown, she took off all restraint from her members, and knowing that a majority of them favored independence, encouraged them to follow their own judgment. The vote of the eleventh of June showed the purpose of New York; but under the accumulation of dangers, her statesmen waited a few days longer, that her voice for independence might have the full authority of her people. The business of the day began with reading various letters, among others one from Washington, who returned the whole number of his men, present and fit for duty, including the one regiment of artillery, at seven thousand seven hundred and fifty four. The state of the arms of this small and inconsiderable body was still more inauspicious; of near fourteen hundred the firelocks were bad; more than eight hundred had none at all; three thousand eight hundred and twenty seven, more than half the whole LXIX. number of infantry, had no bayonets. Of the militia CHAP. who had been called for, only about a thousand had joined the camp; and with this force the general was 1776. July to defend extensive lines against an army, near at 1. hand, of thirty thousand veterans. An express from Lee made known, that fifty three ships with Clinton had arrived before Charleston, of which the safety was involved in doubt. A more cheering letter which Chase had forwarded by express from Annapolis, brought the first news of the unanimity of the Maryland convention, whose vote for independence was produced and read. The order of the day came next, and congress resolved itself "into a committee of the whole to take into consideration the resolution respecting independency." For a few minutes, perfect silence prevailed; every one felt the responsibility of acting finally on the most important question ever agitated in the assembly. In the absence of the mover of the resolution, the eyes of every one turned towards its seconder, John Adams; and the new members from New Jersey requested that the arguments used in former debates might be recapitulated. He had made no preparation for that morning; but for many months independence had been the chief object of his thoughts and his discourse, and the strongest arguments ranged themselves before his mind in their natural order. Of his sudden, impetuous, unpremeditated speech no minutes ever existed, and no report was ever made. It is only remembered that he set forth the justice, the necessity, and the advantages of a separation from Great Britain; he dwelt on the neglect and insult with which their petitions had been treated by the king; |