The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-07-01

- ATE in the afternoon of the Fourth
of July, 1776, the old bell in
A the statehouse at Philadelphia
rang out a joyous peal. A few
moments before, exhausted by the
great heat and vexed to desperation
by a multitude of flies, the fathers Of
this country's liberties had unanimous
ly adopted the Declaration which sew
cred the thirteen colonies from Great
Britain and made the United States OF
America forever free and Independent.
To a certain tall, lanky, sandy hair
ed delegate from Virginia, who had
sat silent while his colleagues wran-
gled over the form and phraseology of
the document, the action of the con-
gress was q great relief, for in those
days he had listened to much acri-
monious criticism of the paper and had
ven seen certain passages stricken
out entirely, and Thomas Jefferson
could not sit by and see the child OF
his brain torn and rended with feelings
of Indifference any more than any 9th
CT HILL 16I III Spll6 VI IhS ClSieS
Of opinions among his fellow delegates.
who suppressed in all some eighteen
of the o fiery passages In the docu-
ment, few other changes or additions
were made.
A year before, when Thomas Jeffer-
son, lately elected delegate to the Con
tinental congress from Virginia, had
-a.1 riJ;.. ;a+0 Dhi1nda1nhia ho had
no premonition that he was to perform
the greatest task that could have been
assigned to a patriot, the writing of
the Declaration of Independence. A
member of the Virginia house of bur
gesses from 1869, he had already made
himself felt In public life in his own
colony. But it was not until he found
himself among those patriots, many of
them intellectual giants, who made up
the Continental congress that his real
powers showed themselves. He could
speak, though his voice became husky
if he attempted much forensic discus
sion, but his pen was by all odds
mightier than his tongue.
Jefferson's readiness in composition,
his knowledge of British law and his
love of freedom gave him solid stand
ing in congress-. Events were moving
rapidly. The time had gone past for
compromise. In May, 1776, the news
reached congress that the Virginia con-
vention was unanimous for i%ndepend-
ence. and on June I Richard Henry
Lee, obeying the instructions of the
Virginia legislature. moved that indie
pendence be declared.
On June 10 Il committee was appoint
ed to prepare a draft of a Declaration.
The members of this committee were
jefferson. Franklin, John Adams, Rog-
err Sherman and Robert L. Livingston.
Jefferson, having beer elected chair
man by reason of having received the
greatest number of votes in the con-
gress, was naturally asked to write the
document. 1t was not difficult to guess
what kind of a document would come
from Jefferson's pen.
Doubtless it might have been differ
ent in form. but 1t could hardly have
been different in sentiment If it had
been written by any other member OF
the committee. There was Il spirit in
the air. 1t was the spirit of liberty. 1t
filled every mans soul. 1t had already
found It's expressions in the writings
of the French agitators and in the writ
ingS of Thomas Paine.
jefferson did not need to create the
Declaration. He had but to express the
sentiments which were common to the
mass of freedom loving men. In after
years, when enemies declared that th6
authorship of the Declaration of indie
pendence displayed n lack of originate
ty and that every idea in it was "hack-
neyed" and was to be found in half