best authorities state it was read from the balcony or platform of the observatory, the popular rostrum of the day, by John Nixon, and in a loud clear voice, heard on the other side of Fifth street. The observatory stood about forty feet due west from the rear door of the present Philosophical Hall, and about the same distance south from the present eastern wing. It was of circular shape, as appears from the foundations recently discovered when perfecting the sewerage of the Square." 21 See note 16, supra. 22 Evidently of Christ Church, which was considered lukewarm. See note 58, chapter V. 23 For part of this portion of the letter, see p. 205. 24 Taken from The Pennsylvania Journal, etc., (C) of July 10th. 25 Also, see note 16, supra. 26 Ellery writes to his brother, July 10th (See The Pennsyl vania Magazine of History and Biography, X, 320, which says that the original letter is in the possession of Miss Ellery of Newport): "We have lived to see a Period which a few years ago no human forecast could have imagined. We have lived to see these Colonies shake of[f], or rather declare themselves independent of a State which they once gloried to call their Parent... I send you inclosed the News-Paper of this Day, in which you will take notice that the Declaration of Independency was proclaimed at the State-House; but it is not published that the late King's Arms were taken from thence and the Court House that Morning and were burned that evening near the Coffee House." (He evidently "inclosed" The Pennsylvania Gazette; certainly The Pennsylvania Journal, etc., of the 10th contained the news in question-see note 24, supra.) 27 Lossing says: "[H] The second story of the State House was occupied by the courts; and while the Continental Congress was in session below, the Provincial Assemblies met above." Also, see p. 112. 5 Clymer was chairman and Joseph Parker, Samuel Howell, Owen and James Biddell, Samuel Morris, Jr., Thomas Wharton, Jr., George Gray, Samuel Miles and Daniel Roberdeau also were present. On this day, the Declaration appeared for the first time in a newspaper - in The Pennsylvania Evening Post (C and N). (John Adams, on the 7th, wrote his wife: "[Qy] I have this Moment folded up a Magazine, and an Evening Post and sent it off, by an Express, who could not wait for me to write a single Line.") It appeared in Dunlap's, etc., (C) of the 8th; in German in Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote (PH and Rid) of the 9th; in The Pennsylvania Gazette (N) and in The Pennsylvania Journal, etc., (C) of the 10th; and in The Pennsylvania Ledger: Or the Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey Weekly Advertiser (C and Rid) of the 13th. (See note 41, chapter VII.) - In The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XVI, 308, is a facsimile of the bill rendered by Michael Kuhn-for carrying these letters. A note says that the original is in the possession of Edward C. Biddle. The items are as follows: "To Go as an Express to Chester County 4 days", £3; to Lancaster County, four days, £3; "to Potts Grove &c", three and a half days, £2, 12s, 6d; and to Bucks County, four days, £3. The following is endorsed upon the bill: “Pay the above account being for services done by order of the Committee of Safety as pr the above account - Owen Biddle 10th July 1776 To John Nixon Esq. & others the Committee of Acc-." 8 The Committee of Safety, according to Hancock's letter, given in the text, it would appear, received from him but one copy-printed by Dunlap under the order of Congress. The copies sent by them to the various Counties, therefore, it also would appear, must have been either hand-copies or other printed copies. Dr. I. Minis Hays thinks (See Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 39) that they were copies printed by Dunlap especially for the purpose under an order of the Committee of Safety. He bases his belief mainly upon the facts that there is in the Society a broadside of the Declaration (For facsimile, see ibid.) on vellum which, though printed by Dunlap, differs from in that it is larger than, etc. - the one printed by him under the order of Congress and that this was found among the papers of a member (David Rittenhouse) of that Committee. (It was presented to the Society, September 19, 1828, by Mease.) (It is headed: "In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. JA DECLARATION | By the REPRESENTATIVES of the | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, | In GENERAL CONGRESS assembled." and has at the bottom, after the printed attestations of Hancock and Thomson: "Printed by JOHN DUNLAP.") We, however, have failed to find any record of such an order by the Committee of Safety, and question, therefore, whether the Declaration was not printed by Dunlap for the second time (when, we do not know, though doubtless soon after the printing under the order of Congress) simply to meet the public demand — probably for the 8th; though we admit that the copies of the Declaration sent by the Committee of Safety to the various Counties may have been of that issue and though very likely the imprint on vellum now in the Society was made especially for the members, or some of them, of that Committee. It may very well be, however, that Hancock in fact sent more than one copy (See note 43, post, and p. 271); or that the copies sent to the various Counties were some of those printed by Dunlap under the order of Congress and secured from Dunlap or, by personal application, from the Secretary of Congress; or that Miller printed a broadside and that they were some of these (See note 41, chapter VII). It even is perhaps possible, though not 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. 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 |