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probable, that copies of The Pennsylvania Evening Post of the 6th, which contained the Declaration, were sent.

9 See p. 191.

10 Clymer, Howell, Owen and James Biddle, John Nixon, John Cadwalader, Parker and Wharton were present.

11 Dunlap's, etc., (C and Rid) of this date contains the following announcement: "THIS DAY at Twelve o'clock, the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE, will be PROCLAIMED at the STATE-HOUSE." See also The NewYork Gazette, etc., (NY and Rid) of July 15th.

12 On this day, Hewes writes a letter in which he says: "A hellish plot has been lately discovered at New-York to murder General Washington and some other officers of the first rank, blow up the magazine, and spike up the cannon. . . A paper has been privately laid on the Congress table, importing that some dark designs were framing for our destruction, and advising us to take care of ourselves. Some were for examining the cellars under the room where we sit. I was against it, and urged that we ought to treat such information with contempt, and not show any mark of fear or jealousy. I told some of them I had almost as soon be blown up, as to discover to the world that I thought myself in danger. No notice has been taken of this piece of information, which I think is right."

13 Taken from The Pennsylvania Journal, etc., (C) of July Ioth. The Pennsylvania Evening Post (C and N), of the 9th, says: "Yesterday, at twelve o'clock, INDEPENDENCY was declared at the State-House in this city, in the presence of many thousand spectators, who testified their approbations of it by repeated acclamations of joy." See also The Pennsylvania Gazette (N) of the 10th; The Connecticut Courant; and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer (C) of the 15th; Dunlap's Maryland Gazette; or the Baltimore General Advertiser (Ba) of the 16th; The New-York Journal, etc., (C) and The New-Eng

land Chronicle (C, MsS and PH) of the 18th; The Virginia Gazette (C) of the 19th; and The American Gazette, etc., (Ex) of the 23d.

14 The following members met at the Committee Chamber on this morning: Clymer (chairman), Parker, Nixon, Owen and James Biddle, Michael Hillegas, Gray, David Rittenhouse, Wharton, Cadwalader, Samuel Morris, James Mease and Howell.

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15 This was probably one of the prints made by Dunlap under the order of Congress; and it is possible that it is now in the possession of Mrs. Ellen W. (Charles C.) Harrison of Philadelphia, for she has (evidently) such a print in her possession and writes us (in 1900) (See, however, note 39, chapter VII): “My Broadside was in a trunk with other valuable papers of my Grandfather, John Nixon, & it has never been out of the possession of the family. At present, it is being photographed. to hang in the Museum of Independence Hall." (The photographic copy here suggested is now in "Independence Hall ".) (It is true that the name of Dunlap does not appear upon the photographic copy; but this does not prove that the original from which this photographic copy was taken has not his imprint, for C. C. Harrison writes us, under date of November 1, 1900, that the broadside is framed, so that no one can tell," without breaking the frame", whether or not there is any printing below the printed signatures, etc.)

#

A fragment of another broadside, having the heading of this Dunlap print but torn after the words "to encourage" (and the balance of it missing), is in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. On it, in pencil, is endorsed: "[PH] Found among the papers of John Nixon of Phila. & supposed to be the original from which he read the Declaration in public." Of it, however, Charles Henry Hart of Philadelphia writes us, under date of

October 22, 1900: ". . . the endorsement . . . is in handwriting of the late Frank M. Etting who died insane one of the most inexact and inaccurate of collectors & when I asked him the authority for it he had none whatever. The one owned by Mrs. C. C. Harrison is the veritable Nixon copy."

16 Watson says: '[V] The Declaration by Captain John Hopkins . .

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Lossing maintains, however, that "[H] testimony appears to predominate in favor of the claims of John Nixon [one of the Committee of Safety] to that honor."

Willis P. Hazard, in his revision of Watson's Annals, etc., quite fully discusses the question. Also, see note 20, post.

We think that there is no room for contention; for Marshall, in his Diary, says: "Warm sunshine morning. At eleven, went and met Committee of Inspection at Philosophical Hall; went from there in a body to the lodge; joined the Committee of Safety (as called); went in a body to State House Yard, where, in the presence of a great concourse of people, the Declaration of Independence was read by John Nixon. The company declared their approbation by three repeated huzzas. The King's Arms were taken down in the Court Room, State House same time. From there, some of us went to B. Armitage's tavern; stayed till one. I went and dined at Paul Fooks's; lay down there after dinner till five. Then he and the French Engineer went with me on the commons, where the same was proclaimed at each of the five Battalions . . . Fine starlight, pleasant evening. There were bonfires, ringing bells, with other great demonstrations of joy upon the unanimity and agreement of the declaration." (For facsimile of this page of Marshall's Diary, see Narrative and Critical History of America by Justin Winsor, vol. 6, p. 273.)

Indeed, Marshall is corroborated by an extract found in Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (PH) of the 9th: "Gestern mittag um zwölf uhr wurde die Erklärung von Unabhängigkeit,

welche vorn in dieser Zeitung stehet, in dem hiesigen Staathaus Hofe, auf einem erhabenen gerůste in Englischer sprache öffentlich verkündigt und dadurch die Vereinigten Colonien von Nord-America von aller dem Könige von Grossbrittannien hiebevor geleisteten pflicht und treuergebenheit von nun an und künftig gänzlich frey, ledig und losgesprochen. Die Verkündigung geschahe durch den Herrn Obersten Nixon, mit dem Herrn Scheriff William Dewees zu seiner seite; in beyseyn vieler Glieder des Congresses, der Assembly, der Generals und anderer hohen Kriegsbeamten; unten im hofe waren vielleicht einige tausend menschen, die dieser feyerlichen begebenheit beywohneten. Nach verlesung der Erklärung, wurde ein dreymaliges freudengeschrey gemacht, mit den worten: GOtt segne die Freyen Staaten von Nord-America! Hiezu kan und wird wol ein jeder echter freund dieser Colonien Ja und Amen sagen."

*

"[Sh] Mrs. Deborah Logan, who lived in the Norris mansion [on the "east side of Fifth Street "] at the time, says she distinctly heard the reading from the garden of that house." Also, see note 20, post.

It may very well be, however, that Hopkins read the Declaration to some one, or perhaps to all, "of the five Battalions" of which Marshall speaks.

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17 [Sh] In the Autobiography of Charles Biddle' he says, 'On the memorable Fourth of July, 1776, I was in the old State-House yard when the Declaration of Independence was read. There were very few respectable people present. General ** * spoke against it, and many of the citizens who were good Whigs were much opposed to it; however, they were soon reconciled to it.' Mr. Biddle confounds July 4th, the day of the Declaration, with July 8th, the actual day of the reading. His

statement that 'very few respectable people' were present, is presumed to refer to people of wealth, family, and position. In this particular Mr. Biddle agrees with Mrs. Deborah Logan, who also heard the reading. The first audience of the Declaration was neither very numerous or composed of the most respectable class of citizens.' The name of 'General ***,' who spoke against the Declaration, is stated to be entirely obliterated and illegible in the manuscript.' In all probability Gen. John Dickinson is meant."

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Of course, Biddle is not to be understood to mean that “General . . . spoke against" the Declaration in the yard.

See p. 221.

See note 16, supra.

18 See note 69, chapter IX.

19 As late as the 8th- the date of the publication in Philadelphia—, Chase writes as given in note 51, chapter IX.

20 Lossing says that this was "[H] the platform of an observatory, erected near the Walnut Street front of the State House, by Rittenhouse, many years before, for the purpose of observing a transit of Venus."

Watson also describes it as "[V] the platform of the observatory' before erected there, by Rittenhouse, to observe the transit of Venus"; though he says, as we have seen, that Hopkins and not Nixon read the Declaration there. He tells us that the platform "[V] was about twenty feet high, but twelve to fifteen feet square, at fifty to sixty feet south of the house, and fifteen to twenty feet west of the main walk."

Hazard, in his revision of Watson's Annals, etc., quite fully discusses the subject. Among other things, he says: "Rittenhouse observed the transit at Norriton, not at the State House. The observatory was erected by the American Philosophical Society for a special committee of observation here. Rittenhouse may have directed or superintended its construction. The

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