On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress debated the draft of the Declaration of Independence that had been prepared by Thomas Jefferson and edited and approved by the other members of the committee (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston), but
not having finished . . . Resolved, That this Congress will, to morrow . . . take into their farther consideration, the Declaration.
Source: Journals of the Continental Congress at 509 accessed at https://archive.org/details/us_congress_continental/lljc005/page/509/mode/2up
Also on that day in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote two letters to his wife Abigail. One letter has been widely quoted by historians and is worth considering today:
Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious Effects. . . .
But . . . the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it.—The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished.—Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their Judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act.—This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.
But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not.—I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.—Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
In his first letter to Abigail on that same day John Adams wrote this memorable paragraph:
Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony “that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States may rightfully do.” You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell’d Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of God and Man. A Plan of Confederation will be taken up in a few days.
Sources: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0016. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 29–33.]; “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0015. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 27–29.]
On this day 250 years ago in New York, additional Royal Navy ships arrived bringing the total to 130 British ships in the Bay of New York. More British troops also landed on Staten Island that day.
Sources: American Battlefield Trust at 36; “Elizabethtown Committee of Safety to George Washington, 3 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0125. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 189–190.]
Also on that day, Col. Hugh Stephenson and Lt. Abraham Shepherd left New York City to return to Virginia to recruit a new regiment of riflemen. Stephenson died in August 1776 while home recruiting.
Sources: https://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/magazine/issues/2013/Oct-Dec/Hannum.html;
And on this day 250 years ago in Annapolis, the Maryland Convention resolved that a new convention be elected to prepare a constitution for the State that did not refer to parliament or the king, but would be a government “…of the people only.”
Source: https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc2600/sc2685/html/conv1776.html
On This Day In The Revolution 