The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-30
BY IDA M. FARRELL.
taught, that while the debate was under

taught, that while the debate was under way
 There was tumult in the city,
 In the quaint old Quaker town.
 a pity not to be able to tell the story of the gray-haired bel-rlnger. sitting with one hand ready on the clapper of his bell. until he hears young voice cry ing "Ring. grandpa, ring. oh ring for Libertyl" As a matter of fact the meet ings of Congress were held behind closed doors, and while 1t was well known in the coffee houses of the city that MT Lees resolution had been voted on favor ably, and, no doubt, too, that Q formal declaration embodying it was under con- sideration, no crowds surrounded Inde- pendence Hall that day; there was no small boy--no sounding of the liberty bell.
 Indeed, it was not until July that the Declaration appeared in the Pennsylva- mia Packet On the Sth 1t was read in the state house yard. The patriots turned out in a great crowd, and the reader, John Nixon, was cheered to the echo After the ceremony the crowd turned it's atten- ton to the kings coat-of-arms, which was suspended over the doorway in the court room of the state house, tearing 1t down and taking 1t out and burning it. In many places the reading of the Declaration. which had been ordered by Congress, was attended by similar acts of destruction.
 As whole the demonstrations were not noisy or destructive. The army. which might have been expected to indulge in some vlndlctive performances, received the news quietly, and in many cases the people seemed to feel deeply the solemn ity of the step which Congress had taken, and to have rightly concluded that pray CTS were moro appropriate to the occasion than the tearing down of statues. The only colony which had refused to vote for Lees resolution on the 2nd was New York. No sooner had the vote been taken than the delegates from that state sent a letter post haste, asking what was to be their lise of action thereafter On July 9 the Provincial Congress of New York. which was in session at White Plains, re- piled that tho reasons assigned by the Continental Congress for declaring the United Colonies free and Independent states are cogent and conclusive: and whole we lament the cruel necessity which had rendered that measure un- avoidable, we approve tho same, and will. at the risk of our lives and fortunes, join with the other colonies in supporting it." Congress was now unanimous on inde- pendence.
 On August 2, a committee appointed on July 19 to prepare an engrossed copy of the Declaration for signing. laid 1t before Congress. Many of the men who had 1OuRnL IL over OH tUP flu Ol JulJ Wfit still present, but in the meantime many new delegates had come to Philadelphia, so that there were a number present who had had nothing to do with the original act of adoption. Just what happened at the signing we do not know, any more than we know the details of the debate in the critical days when 1t was under con- sderation One thing is certain. how ever. serious as this matter of signing really was, nobody hestated. Give me liberty or give me death" was no mere phrase for these men. They had weighed its grim meaning and deliberately accept ed the alternative. They even took up with jests the mater of putting their names to a document which, if the colo nies were defeated. would surely send them all to the galows There, John Bull may read my name without spec tacles," said John Hancock. as he made the big flourish with which we are so familiar from facsimies of the Declara- ton. We must be unanimous he said again, there must be no pulling different