Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-06-29

Virginia having gone so tar as actual
" to Instruct her delegates to propose
declaration Of independence to con-
gress, and Richard Henry Lee was
simply obeying the legislative voice Of
his colony when he presented his reso'
buttons.
June 10 congress postponed final
consideration for three weeks. and Oh
the following day appointed commit
tee Of five to draw mp the declaration
Richard Henry Lee, as the proposer Of
the plan, would surely have been on the
committee and. possibly. its chairman.
had he not in the meantime been hur-
riedly summoned home by the illness
of his wife. But for that Lee might
have been the author Of the declara-
ton instead of his younger Virginia
colleague. Thomas Jefferson. then but
thirty three years old.
Jefferson had brought to congress
the reputation for welding facile
pen, and in the balloting for the COM
mittee he received a majority Of votes
and became it's chairman. The others
were John Adams of Massachusetts,.
Benjamin Franklin Of Pennsylvania.
Roger Sherman of Connecticut and
Robert r. Livingston Of New York.
Honor Given Jefferson.
How did Jefferson come to be Sc
lected to write the Declaration. ''the
one American state paper. as has been
said, that has reached to supreme dis
tinction in the world and that seems
likely to last as long as American civl-
lizatiOn lasts"2
The most interesting account is CIV
en- by John Adams. who says that he
and Thomas Jefferson we're designated
by the committee to prepare the rough
minutes in proper form. Mr.. Jeffer-
son first proposed that Adams prepare
the draft of the Declaration. Adams
declined, giving, as he says in his au-
photography, the following reasons:
~ That he was a Virginian and I a
Observation-Disclosures. (2) That he was a
Southern man and a Northern one. (3)
That I had been so obnoxious for my
e.rly and constant zeal in promoting the
measure that every draft Of mine would
undergo a more severe scrutiny and criti-
ton. ~ And lastly, and that would be rea-
son enough il there were no other, had
great opinion of the elegance of his pen
and none at all of my own. I therefore
insisted that no hesitation should be
made on his part. He accordingly took
the minutes and in a day or two produced
to me his draft.
As jefferson Wrote It.
jefferson says that the entire COM
mittee urged him to make the draft.
He showed it first to Franklin and
Adams "because they were the two
members of whose judgments and
amendments I wished most to have the
benefit" They made few minor al
terations in their handwriting. This
original draft was given by Jefferson
to Richard Henry Lee. the dean Of
the Virginia delegation, and in 1925
his grandson presented it to the Amer
lean Philosophical society Of Philadel-
phia.
Jefferson. having made another copy.
with the changes suggested. presented
it to the committee. which reported It
unaltered to congress. July l Phila-
delphia was on the qui vive of expecta-
ton. and contemporary accounts have
left us stirring picture Of the eager
ness with which the citizens awaited
definite news of the most important
act which the colonists had been called
upon to decide in the long chain of
disputes with the mother country. On
the following day, when the formal
vote Of congress was taken. the reso-
buttons were approved by twelve COL
onies-all except New York. The orig
inal colonies, therefore. became the
United States of America on July 2.
1916. The next two days were spent
in discussing the draft of the Declara
ton as drawn by Jefferson. The debate
was animated, but when it was all
over the draft was adopted with sur
prisingly few changes, tribute to the
ability with which the author had ex.
pressed to the world the causes which
had made it necessary for zone people
to dissolve the political bands which
have connected them with another"
Unanimously Adopted.
The Declaration of independence