Chapter III (2)

"Whether, also, the sentiment of Independence, and the
reasons for declaring it, which make so great a portion of
the instrument, had been hackneyed in Congress for two years
before the 4th of July, 1776, or this dictum of Mr. Adams be
another slip of memory, let history say. This, however, I
will say for Mr. Adams, that he supported the Declaration
with zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of
it. As to myself, I thought it a duty to be, on that
occasion, a passive auditor of the opinions of others, more
impartial judges than I could be of its merits or demerits.
During the debate I was sitting by Doctor Franklin, and he
observed that I was writhing a little under the acrimonious
criticisms on some of its parts; and it was on that occasion,
that, by way of comfort, he told me the story of John
Thomson, the hatter, and his new sign." (Jefferson's Works,
IV. 376.)

The substantial point of difference in these two accounts of
the same transaction, relates to the action of the committee
in designating the person or persons who were to prepare the
draft of a Declaration. Mr. Adams states that Mr. Jefferson
and himself were appointed a sub-committee to prepare it; Mr.
Jefferson states that he alone was directed by the committee
to write the Declaration. This question is not important,
since Mr. Adams's version does not in the least impair Mr.
Jefferson's claim to the authorship of the instrument. The
latter, it must be allowed, gracefully parries the
criticisms of Mr. Adams, by a noble allusion to the eloquence
which sustained his compatriots in the difficulties and
embarrassments that surrounded them, and which they did not
think of analyzing, for the purpose of tracing the exact
originality of its sentiments.

It is proper to add, that Mr. Jefferson's account is
confirmed by the original manuscript draft of the
Declaration, a fac-simile of which was published in 1829, in
the fourth volume of his Works, exhibiting the corrections
and interlineations made by Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams in
their respective handwritings. These emendations were not
important.

The reasons assigned by Mr. Adams for the selection of Mr.
Jefferson as the writer of the Declaration are so numerous,
that it is difficult to determine which of them he intended
should be regarded as the principal or decisive one. In the
autobiography, he states that there were more reasons than
one why Mr. Jefferson was appointed on a committee of such
importance. He assigns two reasons: one, Mr. Jefferson's
reputation as a writer, and the other, the desire of his
Virginia colleagues to have Mr. Jefferson supplant Mr.
Richard Henry Lee. In his letter to Mr. Pickering, Mr. Adams
gives as the reason why Mr. Jefferson was placed at the head
of the committee, that it was "the Frankfort advice to place
Virginia at the head of every thing"; but he also adds, that
Mr. Jefferson brought with him to Congress "a reputation for
literature, science, and a happy talent of composition," and
that this reputation had then been sustained by writings
"remarkable for their peculiar felicity of expression." As in
the case of Washington, therefore, it would seem that there
were reasons of eminent fitness and qualification for the
duty assigned; and certainly the Declaration of Independence
itself fully justifies the selection. Few state papers have
ever been written with more skill, or greater adaptation to
the purposes in view. Whether its sentiments were purely
original with its author, or were gathered from the political
philosophy which had become familiar to the American mind,
through the great discussions of the time, it must for ever
remain an imperishable monument of his power of expression,
and his ability to touch the passions, as well as to address
the reason, of mankind. It would be inappropriate to apply to
its style the canons of modern criticism. Its statements of
political truth, taken in the sense in which they were
manifestly intended, can never be successfully assailed. With
regard to the passage concerning slavery, we may well
conceive that both Northern and Southern men might have felt
the injustice of the terrible denunciation with which he
charged upon _the King_ all the horrors, crimes, and
consequences of the African slave-trade, and in which he
accused him of exciting the slaves to insurrection, and "to
purchase the liberty of which _he_ had deprived them by
murdering the people upon whom _he_ had obtruded them." Mr.
Jefferson, in drawing up the list of our national accusations
against the King, obviously intended to refer to him as the
representative of the public policy and acts of the mother
country; and it is true that the imperial government was, and
must always remain, responsible for the existence of slavery
in the colonies. But this was not one of the grievances to be
redressed by the Revolution; it did not constitute one of the
reasons for aiming at independence; and there was no
sufficient ground for the accusation that the government of
Great Britain had knowingly sought to excite general
insurrections among the slaves. The rejection of this passage
from the Declaration shows that the Congress did not consider
this charge to be as tenable as all their other complaints
certainly were.

FOOTNOTES:

[53] Richard Henry Lee, the mover of this resolution, was born on the 20th of June, 1732, at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia. His earlier education was completed in England, whence he returned in his nineteenth year. Possessed of a good fortune, he devoted himself to public affairs. At the age of twenty-five, he entered the House of Burgesses, where he became a distinguished advocate of republican doctrines, and a strenuous opponent of the right claimed by Parliament to tax the colonies, of the Stamp Act, and of the other arbitrary measures of the home government, coöperating with Patrick Henry in all his great patriotic efforts. He was the author of the plan adopted by the House of Burgesses in 1773, for the formation of committees of correspondence, to be organized by the colonial legislatures, and out of which grew the plan of the Continental Congress. In 1774, he was elected one of the delegates from Virginia to the Congress, in which body, from his known ability as a political writer and his services in the popular cause, he was placed on the committees to prepare the addresses to the King, to the People of Great Britain, and to the People of the Colonies, the last of which he wrote. In the second Congress, he was selected to move the resolution of Independence; and besides serving on other very important committees, he furnished, as chairman of the committee instructed to prepare them, the commission and instructions to General Washington. As mover of the resolution of Independence, he would, according to the usual practice, have been made chairman of the committee to prepare the Declaration; but on the 10th of June, the day when the subject was postponed, he was obliged to leave Congress, and return home for a short time, on account of the illness of some member of his family. He came back to Congress and remained a member until June, 1777, when he went home on account of ill health. In August, 1778, he was again elected a member, and continued to serve until 1780; but from feeble health was compelled to take a less active part than he had taken in former years. He was out of Congress from 1780 until 1784, when he was elected its President, but retired at the end of the year. He was opposed to the Constitution of the United States, but voted in Congress to submit it to the people. After its adoption, he was elected one of the first Senators under it from Virginia, and in that capacity moved and carried several amendments. In 1792, his continued ill health obliged him to retire from public life. He died June 19, 1794.

[54] Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and R. R. Livingston.

[55] See note at the end of the chapter.

[56] On the 24th of June, 1776, the Congress declared, by resolution, that "all persons abiding within any of the United Colonies, and deriving protection from the laws of the same, owed allegiance to the said laws, and were members of such colony; and that all persons passing through or making a temporary stay in any of the colonies, being entitled to the protection of the laws, during the time of such passage, visitation, or temporary stay, owed, during the same, allegiance thereto." Journals, II. 216.

[57] The title of "The United States of America" was formally assumed in the Articles of Confederation, when they came to be adopted. But it was in use, without formal enactment, from the date of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. On the 9th of September, 1776, it was ordered that in all continental commissions and other instruments, where the words "United Colonies" had been used, the style should be altered to the "United States." Journals, II. 349.

[58] Journals, II. 263, 320; III. 123, 502, 513.

[59] From June 11, 1776, to November 17, 1777.

[60] Sparks's Washington, III. 20, note.

[61] Works, III. 20.

[62] Ibid. 46.

[63] Ibid. 47.

[64] Ibid. 55.

[65] Ibid. 56.

[66] Letters of General Washington to the President of Congress, September 21, 1775 (Works, III. 98); October 30, 1775 (Ibid. 137); November 8, 1775 (Ibid. 146).

[67] Letters of General Washington to Joseph Reed, November 8, 1775 (Works, III. 150); November 28, 1775 (Ibid. 177); and to the President of Congress, December 4, 1775 (Ibid. 184); to Governor Cooke of Connecticut, December 5, 1775 (Ibid. 188).

[68] Journals of Congress, II. 208, September 29, 1775.

[69] Writings of Washington, III. 123, note.

[70] February 9, 1776 (Works, III. 278).

[71] Mr. Jefferson once said to my kinsman, Mr. George Ticknor, that when they had any doubtful and difficult measure to carry in this Congress, they counted the four New England colonies, and Virginia, as _sure_; and then they looked round to see where they could get two more, to make the needful majority.

[72] The General Assembly of New York met on the 10th of January, 1775, and by a small majority refused to approve of the non-importation association formed by the first Congress, and also declined to appoint delegates to the second Congress, which was to assemble in May. They adopted, however, a list of grievances, which was substantially the same with that which had been put forth by the first Congress. Towards the close of the session, in the absence of some of the patriotic members, petitions to the King and to Parliament were adopted, which differed somewhat from the principles contained in their list of grievances, and in which they disapproved "of the violent measures that had been pursued in some of the colonies." But the people of New York generally conformed to the non-importation agreement; and on the 20th of April they met in convention and appointed delegates to the second Congress, "to concert and determine upon such matters as shall be judged most advisable for the preservation and reëstablishment of American rights and privileges." Pitkin's History of the United States, I. 324.

[73] "I do not mean," the orders continued, "that they should be kept in close confinement. If either of these bodies should incline to send them to any interior towns, upon their parole not to leave them until they are released, it will meet with my concurrence. For the present, I shall avoid giving you the like order in respect to the Tories in Portsmouth; but the day is not far off, when they will meet with this, or a worse fate, if there is not a considerable reformation in their conduct." Writings of Washington, III. 158, 159.

[74] Writings of Washington, III. 230, note.

[75] Writings of Washington, III. 230, note. See also Marshall's Life of Washington, II. 285-287.

[76] Writings of Washington, III. 230.

[77] Ibid., note.

[78] Journals of Congress, II. 7-9. January 3, 1776. Congress had, on the 2d of January, passed resolves, recommending to the different assemblies, conventions, and committees or councils of safety, to restrain the Tories, and had declared that they ought to be disarmed, and the more dangerous of them kept in custody. For this purpose, the aid of the continental troops stationed in or near the respective colonies was tendered to the local authorities. Journals, II. 4, 5.

[79] The resolves of the Congress on this subject amounted to an outlawry of the persons against whom they were directed. They were introduced by a preamble, reciting the disaffection of a majority of the inhabitants of Queen's County, evinced by their refusal to elect deputies to the convention of the colony, by their public declaration of a design to remain inactive spectators of the contest, and their general want of public spirit; and declaring, that "those who refuse to defend their country should be excluded from its protection, and prevented from doing it injury." The first resolve then proceeded to declare that all the inhabitants of Queen's County named in a list of delinquents published by the Convention of New York be put out of the protection of the United Colonies, that all trade and intercourse with them cease, and that no inhabitant of that county be permitted to travel or abide in any part of the United Colonies, out of that county, without a certificate from the Convention or Committee of Safety of New York, setting forth that such inhabitant is a friend to the American cause, and not of the number of those who voted against sending deputies to the Convention; and that any inhabitant found out of the county, without such certificate, be apprehended and imprisoned three months. The second resolve declared that any attorney or lawyer who should commence, prosecute, or defend any action at law, for any inhabitant of Queen's County who voted against sending deputies to the Convention, ought to be treated as an enemy to the American cause. The fourth resolve directed that Colonel Nathaniel Heard, of Woodbridge, N. J., should march, with five or six hundred minute-men, to the western part of Queen's County, and that Colonel Waterbury, of Stamford, Connecticut, with the same number of minute-men, march to the eastern side; that they confer together and endeavor to enter the county on the same day, and that they proceed to disarm every person in the county who voted against sending deputies to the Convention, and cause them to deliver up their arms and ammunition on oath, and confine in safe custody, until further orders, all those who should refuse compliance. These resolves were passed on the 3d of January, 1776, and were reported by a committee on the state of New York. On the 10th of January, on account of "the great distance from Colonel Heard to Colonel Waterbury, and the difficulty of coöperating with each other in their expedition into Queen's County," Congress directed Lord Stirling to furnish Colonel Heard with three companies from his command, who were to join Colonel Heard with his minute-men, and proceed immediately on the expedition; and also directed Heard to inform Waterbury that his services would not be required. Journals, II. 21.

[80] He received this impression from General Lee, who wrote on the 16th of January and informed him that Colonel Waterbury had "received orders to disband his regiment, and the Tories are to remain unmolested till they are joined by the King's assassins." Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, I. 75.

[81] Letter to General Lee, January 23, 1776. Writings of Washington, III. 255.

[82] Marshall's Life of Washington, II., Appendix, xvii.

[83] Letter to General Lee, January 31, 1776. Writings of Washington, III. 275.

[84] February 6, 1776. Journals, II. 51.

[85] Sparks's Life of Gouverneur Morris, I. 75, 76. They wished to "save appearances with the [enemy's] ships of war, till at least the month of March."

[86] January 26, 1776. Journals, II. 39.

[87] January 30.

[88] March 14, 1776. Journals, II. 91.

[89] Letter of General Washington to the President of Congress.

[90] Resolve passed October 5, 1775. Journals of Congress, II. 197.

[91] These vessels were fitted out from the ports of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead, and Plymouth. They were officered and manned chiefly by sea-captains and sailors who happened to be at that time in the army. They sailed under instructions from General Washington, to take and seize all vessels in the ministerial service, bound into or out of Boston, having soldiers, arms and ammunition, or provisions on board, and to send them into the nearest port, under a careful prize-master, to wait his further directions. The first person commissioned in this way by the Commander-in-chief was Captain Nicholas Broughton of Marblehead, who sailed in the schooner Hannah, fitted out at Beverly; and in his instructions he was described as "a captain in the army of the United Colonies of North America," and was directed to take the command of "a detachment of said army, and proceed on board the schooner Hannah, lately fitted out, &c. at the continental expense." Another of these vessels, called the Lee, was commanded by Captain John Manly. The names of three others of them were the Harrison, the Washington, and the Lynch. The name of the sixth vessel is not known, but the names of the four other captains were Selman, Martindale, Coit, and Adams. (Writings of Washington, III. 516.) When Washington received directions from the President of Congress to send two vessels to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, he wrote, on the 12th of October, that one of these vessels was then out, and that two of them would be despatched as directed, immediately. (Ibid., III. 124.) In the course of a few weeks, they were all out.

[92] Letter to the President of Congress, November 11, 1775. Writings of Washington, III. 154.

[93] Journals, I. 260.

[94] On the 4th of December, he repeated his former recommendation to the President of Congress. (Writings of Washington, III. 184.) On the 26th of December, he wrote to Richard Henry Lee, in Congress, begging him to use his influence in having a court of admiralty or some power appointed to hear and determine all matters relative to captures; saying, "You cannot conceive how I am plagued on this head, and how impossible it is for me to hear and determine upon matters of this sort, when the facts, perhaps, are only to be ascertained at ports forty, fifty, or more miles distant, without bringing the parties here [Cambridge] at great trouble and expense. At any rate, my time will not allow me to be a competent judge of this business." Ibid., III. 217.

[95] Letter to the President of Congress, February 9, 1776. Ibid., III. 282. Letter to Joseph Reed, February 10, 1776. Ibid., III. 284.

[96] Ibid., III. 370.

[97] This was the emission ordered on the 23d of June, 1775. There were _forty-nine thousand_ bills of each denomination from one dollar to eight dollars, inclusive, and _eleven thousand eight hundred_ bills of the denomination of twenty dollars. The form of the bills was as follows (Journals, I. 126):--

CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.

No. ________________ Dollars.

This Bill entitles the Bearer to receive ________________
Spanish milled Dollars, or the value thereof in Gold or
Silver, according to the Resolutions of the Congress, held at
Philadelphia on the 10th day of May, A. D. 1775.

[98] Journals, I. 177.

[99] Journals, I. 126, 177. The signers of the bills were allowed a commission of one dollar and one third of a dollar on each thousand of the bills signed by them. Ibid.

[100] Ante, p. 35.

[101] Writings of Washington, III. 104, 167, 173, 178, 283.

[102] Writings of Washington, III. 278; IV. 115; V. 328. Mr. Sparks has preserved an anecdote, which shows the perpetuation of this feeling about standing armies, and evinces also that Washington possessed more humor than has been generally attributed to him. In the Convention for forming the Constitution of the United States, some member proposed to insert a clause in the Constitution, limiting the army of the United States to _five thousand men_. General Washington, who was in the chair, observed that he should not object to such a clause, if it were so amended as to provide that no enemy should ever presume to invade the United States with more than _three thousand_.