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■■■"••»» ASHINGTON. There
Wwas unveiled in the na
tion's capital recently a
statue of the Rev. John
' UJIJL Vitherspoon, one of
the signers of the Dec
laration of Indepen
dence. More and more
AfYggX attention is being given
3r*3S throughout the country
to ie memories of the
■■niiniir men who signed the
liberty document. Not
long ago there was held in Wash
ington a convention of the descend
ants of the signers. It is expected
that as the result of the labors of
this hereditary organization there
will be gathered together for pres
ervation in one safe place all the
things that are attainable which
had intimate association with the
men who on the 4th of July, 1776.
took their lives and their pens in
hand.
In the year 1776 lived a woman
who was fond of giving curtain
lectures to her husband. She was
the original Mrs. Caudle, though
her name was Mrs. Dickenson, the
wife of John Dickenson of Penn
sylvania, whose "Letters of a
Pennsylvania Farmer" had done
much to arouse a spirit of liberty
among the people. One night sev
eral weeks before the meeting of
the continental congress, of which
Dickenson was a member, his
spouse, speaking from beneath the
shadow of her nightcap, said:
'Johnny, if you have anything to
do with this independence business
you II be hanged, and leave a most
excellent widow." John Dickenson
spoke against the resolution de
claring the colonies to be free and
independent.
Tiie great independence debate
was held within closed doors, and
no record of the speeches was kept,
because it was felt that in case of
the capture of any one of the members of the
body that King George would have him strung
up speedily should there be written evidence
that he had spoken against the supremacy of
the crown. When the Brunswick monarch,
however, had been forced to relinquish his grip
on the united colonies, some of the delegates
told what they had said or what others had
said. These fragmentary speeches had never
before been gathered together, it is believed.
Bits of them appear here and there in revolu
tionary-day stories. Others are to be found in
the correspondence of some of the fathers of
the republic, and two others have had their
spirit, but not their letter, preserved through
one of the almost matchless orations of Web
ster.
It is a well-known fact that the declaring of
the colonies i Impendent was not thought of
seriously before the convening of the memor
able congress of the spring of 1776. Washing
ton wa.« bitterly opposed to any such declara
tion until it became a military and civil neces
sity. Patrick Henry was perhaps the only out
spoken advocate of the year when the cutting
was actually accomplished, though Benjamin
Franklin and Timothy Dwight thought, and
sometimes said, that the yoke should be re
moved. Henry, by the way, in one of his
speeches, undoubtedly gave the keynote to
which Robert Emmet afterward attuned the
last sentence of his speech when condemned
to die. As early as 1773 Patrick Henry de
clared that the colonies should strike for inde
pendence, and prophesied that France would
not be backward in coming to their aid. The
last words of his speech were almost literally
a part of the concluding words of Robert
Emmet's speech: "Then our country shall
take her place among the nations of the
earth."
The original declaration of independence
■was a local affair. Mecklenberg county, North
Carolina, at a public meeting held in the town
of Charlotte, in August, 1775, declared that
4, it threw off forever all allegiance to the Brit
ish crown." It was not long after this that
North Carolina instructed its delegates to the
continental congress to vote "first, last and
always" for the independence of the united
colonies. It must be said that many historians
doubt the authenticity of the Mecklenberg
declaration.
The congress that was to declare America
free convened in Philadelphia, and in a general
way discussed the matter of throwing off the
yoke. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia intro
douced this resolution: "Moved, That these
united colonies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent states, and that all po
litical connection between us and Great Brit
ain is. and ought to be, dissolved."
John Adams of Massachusetts seconded the
motion, but the names of both mover and sec
onder were omitted from the record, because
it was the belief that if the British
got holu of them as prisoners thVy would
stretch hemp without a trial. Before*,the dis
cussion of the resolution congress adjourned
and came together again in June, when began
the debate, perhaps the most momentofja in
history ,v >e details of which, save in detaC&ed
form, were never pre
served. During a part
of the proceedings Ben
jamin Franklin pre
sided.
In a letter written 20
years after the debate
one of the delegates
said that when Benja
min Franklin, after the
signing, said: "Now,
we must all hang together or we'll all hang
separately," Harrison, who had a ready wit,
looking at his ample proportions, said: "If
they drop us off at a rope's end some of you
lightweights will be kicking and suffering long
after I'm done for."
During the time of the adjournment, the
committee which had been appointed to pre
pare the declaration of independence chose
Jefferson, the youngest of their members, to
write the document, on the ground that he was
"the best penman" in the lot. Now, the word
penman in those days was sometimes used to
denote a man who expressed himself well on
paper, and not necessarily a man who wrote a
good hand. The English of the declaration
perhaps shows that the word was used with
the former significance, though some of Jeffer
son's detractors have insisted that Tom Paine
wrote the famous document.
The Declaration of Independence was read
paragraph by paragraph to the assembled
members. As a matter of fact, the most bril
liant speakers were opposed to the resolution.
Among those so opposed were Dickenson, Rob
ert R. Livingston, James Wilson and Edward
Rutledge. It leaked out afterward that most
of these men made speeches opposing the sev
ering of the British bonds. Of three of those
who spoke in favor of independence it was
afterward said: "Jefferson was no speaker;
George Wyeth was sensible, but not clear, and
Witherspoon was clear, but heavy."
It has always been believed that Richard
Henry Lee said, in standing for the absolute
independence of his country: "Why still delib
erate? Why, sir, do you longer delay? Let
this happy day give birth to an American re
public. Let her arise, not to devastate and
conquer, but to re-establish the reign of peace
and law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon
us; she demands of us a living example of
freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the
felicity of the citi'/.en to the ever-increasing
tyranny which desolates her polluted shores,
if we are not this day wanting In our duty to
our country the names of the American legisla
tors of 177G will be placed by posterity at the
side of Theseus, of Lycurgus, of Romulus, of
Numa, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of
all those whose memories have been and for
ever will be dear to virtuous men and good
citizens."
Just how Lee's speech leaked out was not
known, but it led to a somewhat remarkable
scene in the English school of St. Bees. Lee
had a son, a mere boy, a pupil in St. Bees.
A member of a board of visitors to the institu
tion asked the head master who the boy was.
"He is the son of Richard He«ry Lee of
America " was the answer.
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY JULY I, 1909.
cates of resistance to tyr nnn y, spoke forcibly
against the adoption of the declaration. It
may be that his wife's, "Johnny, you 11 be
hanged," was still on his mind. Fie was one
of the best speakers In the congress, and the
friends of liberty feared the effect of his argu
ments. The gist of what he said was years
afterwards made public, and, while Dickenson
feared simply that the time had not yet come
for the declaring of the country's indepen
dence, and was in reality a patriot at heart,
his memory has suffered for the stand he then
took.
When Daniel Webster delivered his pane
gyric of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
he drew a verbal picture of that scene in the
continental congress when the Declaration of
Independence was under discussion. He ltn'ew
the thread of Dickenson's discourse as it had
been imputed to him, and though Webster
mentioned no name, his amplification of Dick
enson's words will probably stand forever aa
containing the essence of the opposition of the
colonial legislator to the taking of a firm stand
for his country's freedom.
Dickenson's speech, as It has come down,
runs in part as follows: "Let us pause. This
step, once taken, cannot be retraced. This
resolution, once passed, will cut off all hope
of reconciliation. If success attend the arms
of England we shall then be no longer colo
nies, with charters and with privileges; these
will all be forfeited by ttits act, and we shall
be in the condition of other conquered people
—at the mercy of the conquerors. For our
selves, we may be .ready to run the hazard,
but are we ready to carry the country to that
length? Is success so probable as to justify us?
Where is the military, where the naval power,
by which we are to resist the whole strength
of the arn\s of England, for she will exert that
strength to the utmost? Can we rely on the
constancy and perseverance of the people, or
will they not act as the people of other coun
tries have acted, and, wearied with a long
war, submit In the end to a worse oppression?
"While we stand on our old ground and in
sist on redress of grievances we know we are
right, and are not answerable for conse
quences. Nothing, then, can be imputed to us.
But if we now change our object, carry our
pretensions farther and set up for absolute in
dependence, we shall lose the sympathy of
mankind. We shall no longer be defending
what we possess, and which we have solemnly
and uniformly disclaimed all intention of pur
suing from the very outset of the troubles.
Abandoing thus our old grouiuls of resistance
only to arbitrary acts of oppression, the na
tions will believe the whole to have been mere
pretense, airtl they will look ou us not as in-
jured, but as ambitious, subjects.
"I shudder before this responsibility. It
will bo on us if, relinquishing the ground
on which we have stood so long, and stood
so safely, we now proclaim independence
and carry on war for that object, while
these cities burn, these pleasant fields
whiten and bleach with the bones of their
Owners, and these streams run blood. It
will be upon us; it will be upon us if, failing
to maintain this unreasonable and 111-judged
declaration, a sterner despotism, maintained
by military power, shall be established over
our posterity, when we ourselves, given up by
an exhausted, a harassed and misled people,
shall have expiated our rashness and atoned
for our presumption on the scaffold."
It is a fairly well established fact that one
of the delegates, lacking a prepared speech of
his own, quoted from Tom Paine's pamphlet,
"Common Sense," which some months before
had created a sensation. Tom Paine, as is
well known, was an atheist, but that made
little difference to the delegate, who was said
to be a pious Puritan, when he had a chance
to let his feelings go ripping through sentences
like these: "It matters very little now what
the king of England either says or does; he
hath wickedly broken through every moral ami
human obligation, trampled nature and con
science beneath his feet, and by a steady and
constitutional spirit of insolence and cruetly
procured for himself a universal hatred. • • •
It has been reported that John Wltherspoon
of Princeton, stanch orthodox Presbyterian,
was the man who (pioted thus liberally from
Tom Paine, atheist. Some years afterward the
Scotch dominie, it is said, was taken to task
for quoting Paine, and reverend John said, if
tradition may be believed, that the devil's
pitchfork was none too bad a weapon to use
in prodding John Bull out of the country.
It was left, however, for John Adams to
make the great speech that brought to the
side of those favoring independence all the
wavering ones, and strengthened in their posi
tion those who stood for the signing of the
declaration. What Adams said was given ia
substance to the world' when there was nt>
longer any danger of his being hanged for his
utterances. Daniel Webster lent his own elo
quence and something of his diction to his in
terpretation of Adams' discourse, which, on
the eventful day, it may be truly said won
for the country the declaration of indepen
dence.
» Adams' powerful and electrifying speech
was in part as follows; "It is true, indeed,
that in the beginning we aimed not at inde
pendence. But there's a divinity which shapes
our ends. The injustice of England has driven
us to arms, and, blinded to her own interest
for our good, she has obstinately persisted till
independence is now within our grasp. We
have but to reach forth to it and it is ours.
Why, then, should we defer the declaration?
Is any man so weak as now to hope for a
reconciiation with England, which shall leave
either safety to the country and its liberties or
safety to his own life and his own honor?
"I know there is not a man here who would
not rather see a general conflagration sweep
over the land or an earthquake sink it than
one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to
the ground. For myself, having 12 months
ago in this place moved you that George
Washington be appointed commander of the
forces raised or to be raised for defense ot
American liberty, may my right hand forget
her cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof
of my mouth if I hesitate or waver in th#>
support I gi/e him. * * *
"My judgment approves this measure and
my whole heart is in it. All that I have and
all that I am, and all that I hope in this life,
1 am now ready here to stake upon it. • • •
I am 4>r the declaration. It is my Jiving sen
timent. and, by the grace of God, St r;hall bo
my dying sentiment, independence now and
independence forever."
The 2d of July is in reality Independence
day, for on this date in the year 1776 a ma
jority of the delegates from each colony voted
for the declaration. Two days later the docu
ment was signed and went into effect, and
from that day to this, in fulfillment of John
Adams prophecy, the day lias been celebrated
"with pomp, parade, games, sports, guns, bells,
boniires, and illumination from one end of the
continent co the other.'
"Come
here, young
man," said
the inquisi
tor , and
when Lee
a pproaclied
the English
man said to
him: "Do
you know
we will soon
have your
father's head
on Tower
hill?"
"You may
have it when
you can get
it,"was the
boy's spirit
ed answer.
John Dick
enson of
Pennsyl
vania, al
though he
had been one
of the fore
most advo-
NEVER DONE.
Slimkins —I —l hope you didn't
mind my putting that little matter of
$5 in the hands of the bill collector
yesterday?
Podger—Not at all; I borrowed •
dollar from him.
Not Lacking In Dignity.
There was once upon a time a coun
try lawyer who was noted for his se
date manners and his judicial bearing.
In the course of time he was elevated
to the bench, where he conducted him
self and the court with becoming de
meanor, and where he won a reputa
tion for sagacity based nearly alto
gether upon his solemn accents and
his corrugated brow.
One who knew him well was asked
by a stranger who saw the judge past
upon the street whether he was really
en efficient arbiter.
"Well," said the acquaintance slow
ly, "I think I may say that John pre
sides with more dignity and less abil
ity than anyone else I ever knew."—
Louisville Courier-Journal.
Great Improvement.
The patient told the doctor all hl»
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"My dear sir," he said, "you must
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Some months later he met the pa
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had been followed.
"To the letter," replied the patient,
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soda completely!"
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