The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-07-21

| i'm 1914 to John Adams: "Isent an express foi
Caesar Rodney to Dover, in the county of Kent
in Delaware, at my private expense, whom
/ met at the State House door on the Fourth
OF July, in his boots; he resided eighty miles
from the city, and just arrived as Congress
met" Jefferson has, however, thrown much
! doubt over these octogenarian recollectlons by
Mexican, and thinks that he confounded the
different votes together. There is little doubt
| that this hurried night-ride by Rodney was in
preparation for the End OF July, not the
Fourth aud that the vote on the Fourth went
quietly through.
But the Declaration, being adopted, was next
to be signed; and here again we come upon an
| equally hopeless contradiction in testimony.
This same Thomas Mexican wrote in 1914 to
ex-President Adams, speaking OF the Declara-
| ton of Independence, "No man signed it on
that day"-namely, July 4, 1776. jefferson,
on the other hand, writing some years later,
thought that Mr.. McKean's memory had de-
! ceived him. Jefferson himself asserting. from
his early notes, that =" The Declaration was re-
ported by the committee, agreed to by the
House, and signed by every member present,
except Mr.. Dickinson" But Jefferson, who
was also an octogenarian, seems to have for
gotten the subsequent signing OF the Declara-
ton parchment until it was recalled TO his
memory, as he states, few years later. II
there was previous signing of written docu-
ment, the manuscript itself has long since dis
appeared; and the accepted historic opinion is
that both these BILE witnesses were mis-
taken that the original Declaration WAS signed
only by the President and Secretary, John Han
cock and Charles Thompson; and that the gen.
eral signing of the parchment copy took place
on August I'd. 1t is probable, at least, that
fifty-fou OF the sixty-sx names were append
ed on that day; and that it was afterward
signed by Thornton, OF New Hampshire, who
was not then member and by Mexican, who
was then temporarily absent.
Jefferson used TO reiate, "wlth much mer-
riment, says Parton, that the final signing OF
the Declaration was hastened by a very trivial
circumstance. Near the hall was large stable,
whence the flies issued in legions. Gentlemen
were in those days peculiarly sensitive to such
discomforts by reason OF silk stockings; and
when this annoyance, superadded to the sum-
mer heat of Philadelphia, had become intoler-
able, they hastened to bring the business TO a
conclusion. This may equally well refer, how
ever, to the original vote flies are flies, whether
in July or August.
American tradition has clung to the phrases
assigned to the different participants i'll this
scene: John Hancock's commentary on his
own bold handwriting, There, John Bull may
read my name without spectacles;" Franklin's,
1--WE must hang together, or else. most as
suredly, we shall all hang separately;" and the
heavy Harrisons remark to the slender Ell
bridge Gerry that, in that event, Gerry would
would be settled. These things may or may
not have been said; but it gives a more human
interest to the event. when we know that they
were even attributed. What we long to know
is, that the great acts of history were done by
men like ourselves, and not by dignifed ma
chimes.
Even those who look with the greatest pride
and hope upon the present and future of this
nation, must admit that the Continental Con-
gress contained in 1776 remarkably large pro-
portion Of able and eminent men. The three
most eminent delegations, naturally were
from what were then the three leading States
Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.
Virginia contributed Thomas Jefferson, who
framed the Declaration; Richard Henry Lee,
whose resolutions preceded it; Francis Light
foot Lee, his brother; Wythe and Braxton,
who had stood by Patrick Henry in the old
House of Burgesses; Nelson, who had first
proposed organizing the colonial militia Of
Virginia. and who later, rs a General in
the field, bombarded his own house at York
town, and Harrison, afterward the father Of
a President. Massachusetts, sent Hancock,
the President of the Congress samuel Adams,
who shared with Hancock the honor of being
excepted from royal pardon John Adams,
"our Colossus on the floor !" Elbridge Gerry,
afterward Commissioner to France and Vice
President of the United States, and Robert
Treat Paine, who had acted IA public prosecu-
tor after tho Boston massacre. Pennsylvania
contributed DR.. Franklin "the Genius of the
Day and the patron of American Liberty !"
Robert Morris, "the financier of the Revolu-
tion," by whose sole credit the Continental
army was sustained in it's closing campaign, and
who was afterward q prisoner for debt; Nor
ton, who had been member OF the "Stamp
Act Congress - Ross, the mediator between
the colonists and the Indians; DR.. Rush, re-
nowned for science and for humanity Clymer,
soldier, student, writer, and prison reformer |;
the Irish-born Taylor and Smith, and the Scotch
Wilson.
Yet the other Colonies we're represented by
delegations hardly less eminent. New York
sent Livingston, OF Livingston Manor" the
correspondent of Edmund Burke and one OF
the trainers Of tho Address to the People of
Great Britain" in the first Continental Con-
gress Lewis, the Welsh merchant, to whom
the British Government had given 5000 acres
of land for his services in the French and In
dian war; Floyd, who, during the greater part Of
the Revolution, was an exile from his home,
leaving it in the hands OF the British and
Morris. afterward succeeded in Congress by his
more famous brother, Gouverneur. New Jer-
sey sent Hopkinson, lawyer, wit and poet-the
author OF 1.-THE Battle OF the Kegs !" DR..
Witherspoon, the Scotch clergyman, President
of Princeton College Stockton, a patriot, and
the ancestor of patriots Clarke, known as
"The Poor Mans Counsellor !" though not a
lawyer, and "honest John Hart" New Hamp-
shire had chosen DIR. Bartlett, the first to sign
the parchment roll DIR. Thornton, who sue
ceeded Gov. Wentworth, and became acting
Governor Of New Hampshire and Whipple,
who rose from a cabin boy to be a General COM
manding with Stark ut Bennington, and under
Gates at Saratoga. Connecticut sent Roger
Sherman shoemaker, lawyer and Judge, who
had studied while working at his bench, and
had become a profound lawyer on borrowed
law books Huntington, afterward President OF
Congress, and Wolcott. who defended the Con.
necticut coast against Tryon, and, later, made
| peace with the Six Nations. Rhode Island sent
Hopkins, who had introduced bill into the Rhode
Island Assembly to abolish slave importation,
and had, at the same time, emancipated I'M
| own slaves and Ellery, whose house wa,
burned bv the British army az soon as it took pos
session Of the island.
| Delaware had elected Rodney who rod,
eighty miles, as already stated, to be present a
the vote for independence (; Read, who has
| reused his colony to contribute for the suffer
ers by the Boston Port BILL and McKean th,
only man who served in Congress through
the whole Revolutionary war. The South Car
olina delegates forming at first the only dele
CATION which had united in opposing independ
dence, were equally united in finally approving
and practically sustaining il, Middleton losinI
his fortune in the cause, Hayward being scarre
for. life by gunshot wound, and both, witt
Rutledge, being imprisoned for year at 81
Augustine by the British while young Thoms
Lynch. who had come from the London Tempt
to espouse his countrys cause, escaped tn
dangers OF war only TO be lost at sea at 30
These were ALI natives of the colOnv from whicl