The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-05
DECLARATION OF FREEDOM
Humors of Debate on the Question of
Declaring the Colonies Free,
Chicago Record-.Herald.l

| Chicago Record-Herald.)
| Just century and quarter ago to-day
the debate on the question of declaring
/ the colonies independent was at its
1 height AS every one knows, the discus
sion was held behind locked doors, and no
record was made of the speeches. 1t was
| felt that in case any member of the body
| was captured and there was written evil
dence against him he would be strung up
| speedily for having spoken against the
supremacy of the crown. The popular
| idea is that there was absolutely nothing
| to tighten the grave solemnity of that
| July debate When Daniel Webster de-
| livered his panegyric of Thomas Jefferson
and John Adams he drew a picture OF
| the scene in the Continental Congress
when the declaration was under discus
| sion Webster's picture and the speeches
which he put into the mouths of some OF
| the delegates form the worlds idea today
of the session upon which was depending
| the birth of nation. In after years,
while all who were present still kept
silence about the greater part of the pro-
ceedings they did not feel it was neces-
sary to hold to themselves some OF the
Jokes which enlivened the solemn con-
clave Most of these bits of humor have
been forgotten and one has to go back
| to literature contemporaneous with the
close of the revolutionary war to get at
them.
Mrs John Dickinson, wife of one Of the
Pennsylvania representatives in the
Continental Congress, is credited with be-
| ing the original Mrs. Caudle. John had
written the Letters of a Pennsylvania
Farmer" which had done much to arouse
a spirit of liberty among the people. I'm
medately after the introduction of
Richard Henry Lees first independence
resolution Mrs Dickinson began at her
spouse from beneath the shadow of her
nightcap. She said: Johnnie, if you
have anything to do with this indepen-
dence business you'll be hanged and leave
a most excellent widow
Dickinson spoke against the resolution,
declaring the colonies to be free AMI in
dependent. and more than one of the
members of Congress told him that it was
the wife and not Dickinson who was
speaking
BENJAMIN Franklins statement after
school history in the land. The rejoind-
err that Benjamin Harrison made to the
other Benjamins remarks is not so well
known. Franklin, after the last sigma
ture was affixed said: Now we must
all hang together or We'll all hang sep
arately.
Harrison was a heavy weight, and he
had a ready wit. When Franklin spoke
Harrison looked down over his ample
proportions and said: Eyes, but when
they drop us off at ropes end some of
you light weights will be kicking and
suffering long after ! am done for
It has been fairly we'll established that
John Witherspoon, the pious president of
Princeton, lacking a prepared speech OF
his own for the debate, quoted from Tom
Paines pamphlet Common Sense.
Tom Paine was an atheist, but that made
little difference to the clergyman dele
gate when he had chance to let his
feelings go ripping out with sentences
like this: 'It matters very little now
what the King of England either says or
does. he hath wickedly broken through
every moral and human obligation, tram
pied nature and conscience beneath his
feet, and by a steady and constitutional
spirit of insolence and cruelty procured
for himself a universal hatred"
Some good Presbyterian in Congress
took Witherspoon to task for quoting the
atheist Paine The reverend John turn
ed on his critic ard said: THE devils
pitchford is none too bad weapon to
use on a tyrant.
Witherspoon on another occasion lent
some humor to the debate John Dickin-
son had said that the colonies were not
ripe for independence. The Presbyterian
divine was on his feet in an instant. He
fairly howled at the speaker: Not ripe,
sir, We are not only ripe, but rotting.
Almost every colony has dropped from the
parent stem, and your own province, sir,
needs no more sunshine to mature it"
There was an incident connected with
the debate for independence which, while
not humorous, may perhaps be properly
mentioned Read, one of the Delaware
delegates inveighed against declaring for
independence. When Mexican, another
Delaware delegate heard Reads speech
he feared that the majority of his coonys
delegates would not be in favor of the
resolution because Caesar Rodney,
strong advocate of the measure and one
of Delaware's representatives, was abb
sent and eighty miles away. During the
heat of the debate Mexican stole out of the
House, secured the best horse in Phila-
delpha, put round sum in gold into
first class horseman's pocket and said
You ride and bring Rodney here. Spare
neither speed. expense nor strength. The
life of nation hangs in the balance.
This mans ride has never been sung in
song, but he brought Rodney to Philadel-'
phia in the nick of time and Delaware's
delegation by majority vote went on
record for freedom.