Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1897-07-01
INDEPENDENCE DAY.
FREEDOM PROCLAIMED ON THE SEC
oND DAY OF JULY.

On That Day Final Action Was Taken ON
the Declaration by the Continental Con-
gress-Signed on the Fourth-How the
News Was spread-Boston's Celebration.
In Mr.. Webster's eulogy on Adams and
Jefferson he makes John Adams the proph-
ct of our celebration of Independence
day, writes Edward Everett Hale in The
Independent. In the well remembered
speech which he puts into the mouth of
Adams, the speech which a million school
boys have repeated, he makes Adams use
these words:
We make this a glorious, immortal day.
When we are in our graves, our children will
honor it. They will celebrate it with thanks
giving, with festivities, with bonfres and illu-
limitations. On its annual return they viii shed
tears, copious, gushing tears not Of subjec-
tion and slavery, not of agony and distress,
but of exultation, of gratitude and of joy. Sir,
before God, believe the hour is comel
And at the end Of the Adams speech, as
Mr.. Webster reproduces it, after the words,
independence now and independence for
ever Mr.. Webster says:
And SO that day shall be honored. iIlustrious
prophet and patrioti So that day shall be hon
ored. and often as it returns thy renown
life. like the day of death, shall not fail from
the remembrance of men.
The reader will remember that by one of
those extraordinary condolences which
stagger men who try to resolve history into
myths Jefferson and Adams both died on
the fftieth anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence.
In truth there was formal discussion
in the continental congress, beginning on
the 1st of July, on the question of the
Declaration. John Dickinson wanted to
place himself ON record. The delegates
just arrived from New Jersey wanted to
hear the reasoning on both sides. There
Is no record left of that great days debate.
OF the friends of the resolution for indie
pendence-
Lee, who had moved it, had been called
home; Mr. jefferson was no speaker George
Wythe was sensible, but not eloquent; Wither-
spoon was clear but trifle heavy. The de-
batting talent must be admitted to have pre-
ponderated on the opposite side. It claimed
John Dickinson, James Wilson, Robert R. Liv-
ingston of New York and Edward Rutledge of
South Carolina.
These are Charles Francis Adams words
Dickinson took part in the discussion and
spoke against immediate independence,
and the duty of defending the proposal fell
naturally upon John Adams. OF this
speech, as really made, not one word has
been transmitted to posterity But the ac-
counts of it agree in representing it as
having been in the highest class of oratory
Adams himself wrote to his wife on the
Sd of July, after the final vote had been
taken on Lees resolution. 1t is from this
remarkable letter that Mr.. Webster has
caught few passages which he has inter
woven into his sketch of the speech of
Adams In this letter Adams says:
But the die is cast. The second day of July
will be the most memorable epoeha in the his
tory of America. am apt to believe TINT it
will be celebrated by succeeding generations
as the great anniversary festival It ought to
be commemorated the day of deliveranee
by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty
1t ought TO be solemnized with pomp and pa
rade, with games, sports, guns BELLS bonfires
and illuminations, from end of this conti-
nent to the other, from this time forward for
evermore.
As is well known, the celebration of the
4th of July instead of the I'd comes from
the fact that on that day the Declaration
was signed by all the members present.
So soon as this was done a broadside
was issued which was sent to the different
states. The newspapers copied it immedi-
ately, and it was read in public assem-
blies, sometimes from the original broad
side and sometimes from the newspaper
The Declaration arrived in Boston with
such speed that it could be proclaimed on
the 18th of July, a fortnight after it was
signed. An English officer, "a prisoner in
the town at that time, describes the cele-
bration:
As we passed through the town. we found it
thronged All were in thoir holiday SUITS
every eye beamed with delight and every
tongue was in rapid motion. Tho streets adj
joining the council chamber We're lined with
detaehments of infantry, tolerably equipped
while in front of the Jail court street) artil-
lery was drawn up, the gunners with lighted
matches. The crowd opened a lane for us, and
the troops gave u.s. as we mounted the steps,
the salute due to officers of our rank.
This unfortunate gentleman had been
invited, with other English officers in Bos-
ton on parole, to be present at the town
house to witness the ceremonies.
Exactly as the clock struck l, Colonel Thorn
as Crafts, who occupied the chnir, rose and
read aloud the Declaration. This being finish
ed, the gentlemen stood up and, each repeating
the words as they were spoken by an officer,
swore to uphold the rights of his country.
Meanwhile, the town clerk read from a bal
cony the Declaration to the crowd, at the close
of which shout, begun in the hail. passed to
the streets, which rang with loud huzzas, the
slow and measured boom of cannon and the
rattle of musketry. There was banquet in
the council chamber, where all the richer citi-
appeared. Large quantities of liquor
We're distributed among the crowd, and, when
night closed in, darkness WIS dispelled by
general illumination
The lion and the unicorn were at that
time taken down from the east wing of
the old statehouse only to be restored
few years since They were then restored,
with the proviso, moved by an Irish men,
ber of the Boston city council, that the
American eagle should be placed at the
other end Of the same building. The lion,
the unicorn and the eagle are, therefore,
the trinity of animals on the old state
house today.