On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, there was much talk of Independence. That day the Pennsylvania Evening Post published an article listing seven

Reasons for a Declaration of the Independence of the American Colonies

Source: https://www.rarenewspapers.com/newspaper/704787-common-sense-reasons-for-a-declaration-of-independence

Also on that day in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote to James Warren that

Last Evening, a Letter was received . . . from Mr. John Penn, one of the Delegates from North Carolina, lately returned home to attend the Convention of that Colony, in which he informs, that he heard nothing praised in the Course of his Journey, but Common sense and Independence. That this was the Cry, throughout Virginia. That North Carolina, were making great Preparations for War, and were determined, to die poor and to die hard, if they must die, in Defence of their Liberties. That they had, repealed, or Should repeal their Instructions to their Delegates against Independence. That South Carolina had assumed a Government chosen a Council, and John Rutledge Esqr., President of that Council with all the Powers of a Governor

Source: “John Adams to James Warren, 20 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0048. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 130–133.]