The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1916-06-30

| hall, Philadelphia. To give the nee
~ essary touch of vivacity to the pic
ture there Is the scene Of the small
boy darting from the door the last signer sets
his autograph to the precious parchment and DASH
ing down the street calling to his grandfather to
"Rtngi Oh, ring for libertyl'
Our ideal proclamation of the charter of Amer
lean freedom must be shattered in the cause Of
truth. The Declaration Of Independence
signed behind locked doors, and not general
ly signed upon the Fourth of J.iy at all. The city
was not breathlessly awaiting the event outside
nor did the Liberty bell peal forth that day
the triumphal note o. freedom
The accredited historian Of the United States
department Of state is Gaard Hunt, Lift. D., L.
D., now chief of the division of manuscripts in the
Library OF Congress-
There is really for our celebrating
the Fourth of July more than July or August 2"
said Doctor Hunt recently to an inquirer. at
not until the latter date that the document
generally signed.
'"rhe Virginia bill of rights of which George
Mason also the author, was drawn up and
adopted In the last colonial assembly in Virginia
prior to the Revolution. The bill of rights is in
effect part of every constitution in the land to-
day. 1t Is beyond doubt that this famous docu
nent. of which his elderly friend author
largely drawn upon by Thomas Jefferson when he
wrote the Declaration of Independence
''rhe fundamental principles of government set
forth In Mason's bill of rights the same as
those In the English petitions to the king the acts
of the long parliament and magma charta.
You know, perhaps, that 1t another vir
ginian, Richard Henry Lee, who presented to CON
gress. on June Z, 1176, of resolutions contain
Ing the words, That these united colonies are and
of right ought TO be- free and Independent states
and that all political connection between them
and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be
totally dissolved.
1T n result of the favorable voting upon
Lees resolutions that the well-known committee
composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams Ben
jamiil Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert r. Liv
ingston was named to draft the document The
committee assigned the task of preparing the In
strument to the Virgnian. Jefersons was the
master political mind and 1t by no mere
chance that he was called upon to write the docu
ment which has been termed the best-known m
per that has ever come from the pen of an ind-
viduul.
Drafting OF the Declaration
Thomas jefferson was the personiicntion of
method remarked Doctor Hunt, "and Immediate
ly upon receiving his commission to write the
declaration he retired to the two rooms he rented
as working place at Seventh and Market place
Philndelphia, and prepared give his country
one of the greatest monuments of human freedom
The department of state the first draft of
the Declaration which Jefferson presented to the
committee for its approval. His confreres made
few alterations. which are clearly shown in the
text. and Jefferson has written beside each change
the name of its author, making the document of
ine-timable value.
THE fair copy which he made for presentation
TO congress. and which bears the congressional
amendments and alterations is lost
1.-The latter is the formal Declaration of Inde-
nendence laid before congress on June 2S l776
II was then read and ordered to lie on the table
until July ]. On July . resolution was passed
declaring the independence of the United States
although the exact form of the proclamat ton as
prepared by jefferson debated upon until July
4, when, with some alterations and amendments 1t
was signed by John Hancock, president of the
congress, and the signature attested by Charles
Thomson secretary of congress-
July was actually the date of separation of
the colonies from the mother country. On July 3
find John Adams, whom jefferson called the
colossus of the colonies, writing to his wife Abb
gail, in the following words:
y esterday the greatest question which was
ever debated in America decided and a great
er perhaps never was nor will be decided among
men,
Great Day Was July 2.
In second letter. written the same day, he
said But the day is past. July will be the
most memorable epoch in the history of America.
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by
succeeding generations the anniversary festival
II ought to be commemorated the day of deliv-
erance by solemn of devotion to God Al
mighty
There is little doubt but that the participants
IN the event considered July as the true date Of
independence for the colonies, but popular fancy
seized upon the 4th the date of acceptance Of JEFF
ferson'R formal and detailed setting-forth the
proper date of celebration
John Trumbull's famous painting of the scene.
hanging in the rotunda of the capitol, is a poetcal
piece of work and gives many of the portraits Of
the sgners with fathfulness. but 1t Is somewhat
fanciful. No silken hangings draped the windows
of that sitting July 4, 1910, and the beau
tiful order in which the men are ranged up for
signing the immortal document Is also nctiona