July 1, 2001

Hurrah July 2

Hurrah for the Declaration of Independence proclaimed July 4, 1776! - or was it July 2, or Aug. 2, or Oct. 10, 1774?

The inscribed document that made us a nation was read from the steps of the Philadelphia State House on July 4, 1776. However, it had been proposed by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and adopted by the Second Continental Congress two days earlier. It was not signed by delegates until Aug. 2.

John Adams, delegate from Massachusetts who seconded the motion for independence, thought deeds spoke louder than words. He expected the day that the momentous decision was made would become the principal holiday of the new nation.

In a letter to his wife, Abigail, on the day following adoption of the resolution, Adams gives us an insight to the feelings of Congress about July 2 instead of the now popular July 4.

Adams' Letter

My Dear Wife:

Yesterday the greatest question was decided what ever was debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men.

A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony: "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States and as such they have, and of right ought to have, full power to make war, conclude peace, establish commerce and do all other acts and things which States may rightfully do."

You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reason which will justify it in the sight of God and man. A plan of confederation will be taken up in a few days.

I look back to the year 1761 and recollect the argument concerning writs of assistance in the Superior Court. I have hitherto considered it as the commencement of this controversy between Great Britain and America.

When I recall the series of political events, the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised at the suddenness as well as greatness of this revolution.

Britain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom. At least, this is my judgment. Time must determine.

The new governments we are assuming in every part will require purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues, or they will be no blessings.

The people will have unbounded power, and the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as are the great. But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an over-ruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.

The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.

It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade; with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations - from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and to support and defend these states.

Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means --- and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.

 With loving affection

John

* * *

John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress with a price on his head for treason, was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. He did so with a flourish and in large letters. In relinquishing the pen, Hancock declared: "There! I guess King George will be able to read that."

As others signed, Hancock said, "We must all hang together." Benjamin Franklin replied, "We must, indeed, hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately!"

Earlier Declaration

The Founding Fathers took great personal risk in signing a document that all understood was treasonous. Yet, the sentiment was first expressed after the battle of Pt. Pleasant, Kentucky, ending Lord Dunmore's War on Oct. 10, 1774.

The hotheads of Boston may have been stirred to war by the tax on tea. The rest of the colonists were more concerned about possession of the world's richest farmland west of the Ohio River.

King George III had decided that western lands beyond the original colonies would be open to white settlement only south of the Ohio River. All else was reserved to Indians.

To impose authority over the Indian reservation and keep out land-hungry colonists, the king extended the borders of Canada south to the Ohio River.

This angered frontiersmen and emboldened Indians. Murderous raids between white and red men reached the flash point in the spring of 1774 when Dr. John Connolly, Dunmore's representative at Fort Pit (now Pittsburgh), declared war was at hand.

He called for frontiersmen to arm themselves. Scattered settlers fled to places of safety.

The first bloodshed came when two Indians paddling their canoe down the Ohio - perhaps too close to the Pennsylvania shore - were fired on and killed. Other Indians retaliated, followed by more white vengeance.

Finally the Indians were provoked to organized war by an atrocity that was both vicious and senseless. A band of frontiersmen, under the leadership of a man named Greathouse, gave whiskey to a small tribe of Mingoes. When all were drunk the Indians were murdered in cold blood.

Among the victims was the sister of Chief Tah-gah-jute. He is better known to history by his English name of Logan, and for his pathetic speech of surrender.

Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia and a land speculator with personal designs on the Northwest Territory, called out the militia. He took charge of the forces at Ft. Pitt and assigned southern troops to Col. Andrew Lewis.

Dunmore's plan was to join forces at the mouth of the Big Kanawaha River in Kentucky.

For some reason, Dunmore came down the Ohio River only as far as the Hocking River. Then he marched northward to the Shawnee towns south of present day Columbus, Ohio.

Meanwhile, Lewis encamped at Point Pleasant according to plan. There, on Oct. 10, he was attacked by more than a thousand warriors under the leadership of Cornstalk.

The battle raged all day. Toward evening, the Shawnees began to retire across the Ohio. One-fifth of Lewis' forces were killed, but he won a clear victory.

A scout took the news to Dunmore as he approached the Shawnee villages. Beaten, Cornstalk asked for peace. He agreed to return prisoners and property and to observe the Ohio River as the Indian boundary.

The Mingoes refused to join the negotiation and so were subdued by an expedition which destroyed their village at Columbus.

Logan had not fought at Point Pleasant for he was leading an attack against the Virginia frontier at the time. However, he sent an interpreter to Dunmore with the famous speech recounting mistreatment of him by the white men:

"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin, hungry, and I gave him not meat; if ever he came cold or naked and I gave him not clothing.

"During the course of the last, long and bloody war, Logan remained in his tent, an advocate of peace. Nay, such was my love for the whites that those of my own country pointed at me as they passed by and said 'Logan is the friend of white men.'

"I had even thought to live among you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all the relatives of Logan - not sparing even my women and children!

"There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance.

"For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. Yet, do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life.

"Who is there to mourn for Logan. Not one."

Logan's lament was not quite sincere, however. While intoxicated he attacked a party of friendly Indians and was killed by his relative, Tod-hah-dohs, in self-defense.

While these negotiations were underway in Ohio, Dunmore and his men received word of the meeting of the First Continental Congress. Dunmore's officers - fired with patriotic zeal by their victorious engagements -- adopted a resolution promising support of the Congress should it decide to sever ties with Britain.

Thus, nearly two years before the actual Declaration of Independence, the proposition was firmly expressed.

Dunmore was upset.  Those were not his sentiments.  He remained loyal to the king in the ensuing, larger struggle.

He surely would have been dismayed that a frontier battle ending in defiance of the king would go down in history with his name attached.

His men, though, would be proud that they anticipated a new nation and a new form of government for a free people with "certain unalienable rights: that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Author: Lindsey Williams

cutline - group patriots - 4 col.

From painting by Artist John Trumbull

[ The Declaration of Independence being presented by the drafting committee in the Philadelphia State House (now Independence Hall). Standing, from left, are John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson (who wrote most of the text) and Benjamin Franklin. Facing them, also standing is John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress. ]