St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-05
IA Little Historical Research
z Upsets One of Our Pet
Traditions.
The Great Document Not
+ Signed Until a Month
After July 4.
The Engrossed Copy at the
State Department a Patri-
otic Afterthought.

This epitaph on John Hancock COM
bines declaration with prophecy. 1t
begins to appear that the one is doubt
full and the other altogether inaccurate.
The epitaph was based on the belief,
which was almost universe when it was
written and which is general still, that
John Hancock. as the president of the
continental congress at Philadelphia,
wrote his name. and wrote it big. on the
original Declaration of independence
Oh the 4th Of July. 1776.
The engrossed Declaration of indie
pendence, bearing the autograph sigma.
lures of the fifty-siX signers, is on file
in the state department in Washington.
When the average American or the
average man looks at the historic docu-
ment or at the fac-Similes and printed
copies of it. he imagines that the great
document was completed aud signed
by every one of the fifty-Slx members
of congress who agreed to it on the
4th OF July, 1776.
But that idea is wrong, In fact, the
document which Americans have he Id
so sacred, and which may be seen
any day by the visitor to the archives
of the state department, is not what it
presends to be. 1t bears the date
of July 4, 1776, and no other
date, and most persons suppose that
it was complete in every respect OH
that day. whereas recent historical and
antiquarian research shows that not a
single signature was appended to it on
that day; that, in fact, the document
itself was not engrossed until Aug. 2,
1776, the first day on which any of the
signatures could be affixed, and that as
late as January, TIT, at least one of the
ffty-slX signatures now affixed was
wanting that of Thomas Mexican, of
Delaware. The research OF history
threatens to play the mischief with the
Fourth OF July as great national holi-
day.
The Declaration was adopted by the
congress on July q. but it was the act of
signing that gave life, significance and
force to the Declaration.
Early in the century the historians
began to question whether the docu-
ment as we see it to-day told the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the
truth. When the veracity of the parch-
ment in the state department began to
be doubted the theory was adopted that
the original Declaration was written on
paper and signed July 4, 1776, by all the
immortal patriots whose names now
adorn the parchment and all printed
copies of It, Then circumstances came
to light which show that the paper
Declaration was not signed by all the
fifty-six on July 4, and the teaching of
the most recent investigations is that
nobody signed the Declaration on July
4, either Oh paper OF on parchment.
The rQcnlfS of tho latest inOuirioc IN
the. subject are embodied in book re-
Gently issued by Rotterdam Buchanan,
under the title, 1.-THE Life of Hon.
Thomas Mexican, LII. D., Member of
the Continental Congress from Della
ware; Chief Justice and Governor of
Pennsylvania, Signef of the Declaration
of Independence, and President of Con-
greSS."
Buchanan, who is relative of Mr..
Mexican, has dedicated his book to eX-
Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard,
of Delaware, and Mr.. Bayard. in let
ter to the author accepting the dedica-
ton. says:
AS his kinsman and descendent, you have
performed p1ous duty in compiling with
simple accuracy full and faithful record of
the life work of your ancestor; and the pict
ure you have given of his private as well as
of his public character and career is just and
true.
The book is illustrated by some vaIua-
BILE fac-slmilies of important passages
in the manuscript journals of the Con-
tinental congress. These show many
inaccuracies in the printed journals OF
the Continental congress, which have
been the guides of historians and writ
ers of all kinds and the public gener-
ally. Mr.. Buchanan seems to prove
that the parchment now in the state de-
partment is the original Declaration, the
first instrument in which the sigma
lures of the fathers were appended to
the immortal words.
The declaration was printed and cir
culated among the states and the army
before it was 'engrOsSed. For the sake
of authorization the printed copies bore
the names of Hancock, the president,
and Thomson, secretary OF the congress.
AS soon as the document was adopted,
on July 4, the copy was prepared for the
printer, and the chances are that who
ever prepared it wrote both names.
That man, probably, was Charles Thorn
son, who prepared the printers copy.
and he, in all likelihood, wrote down
Hancock's name as we'll as his own.
The strange fact about the whole affair
10 tudb ulStOIICdl lcldGIllS u lllt
signing of the Declaration have the sup
and John Adams. In his memoranda
Mr.. Jefferson says:
The Declaration thus signed on the 4th, on
paper, was engrossed on parchment and
signed again on the I'd of August
And again, in a letter of May IL, 1919,
to Samuel Adams Wells:
1t was not till the I'd Of July that the
Declaration itself was taken up; nor till the
4th that it was decided, and it was signed by
every member present, except Mr.. Dickln-
son. ~
Mr.. Adams takes the same side of the
question with Mr.. Jefferson. In trans
mitting the above letter OF Mr.. Mexican
to Mercy Warren for her reading. he
writes under date of Quincy, Feb. 2,
1874:
= Dear Madam: / send you a curiosity. Mr.
Mexican is mistaken in a day or two. The
final vote of independence. after the last de-
bate, was passed on the I'd or Sd of July, and
the Declaration prepared and signed on the
4th.
! What are we to think of history when, in
less than forty years. such diversities appear
in the memories of living persons who were
witnesses?
I ''These conflicting statements" says
Mr. Buchanan, ''should now be careful
ly criticized. Mr. Adams here, in his
old age. contradicts what he himself
said thirty-eight years before in letter
to Samuel Chase. On July9, five days
after the passage of the declaration, he
writes: AS soon as an American seal
is prepared l conjecture that the dec
1aration will be subscribed by all the
members From which we may infer
that the declaration had not then been
signed. The earlier letter as contem-
porary evidence is deserving of more
credit than the latter one"
In his recent history Justin Winsor
states distinctly that it was signed by
the president and secretary. The best
investigators of our day are agreed that
the president and secretary alone
signed it on that day."
Daniel Webster, Robert c. Winthrop
and George Washington Greene hold
that it was authenticated by the sigma
ture of the president and secretary.
Peter Force, who is generally regard
ed as the most thorough and reliable in
yestigator of Revolutionary history,
Donoroft Dsoho,.J Erofb;, ~,