competent salaries, to assist the said board in executing the business of their department.

"That it shall be the duty of the said board to obtain and keep an alphabetical and accurate register of the names of all officers of the land forces, in the service of the United Colonies, with their rank and the dates of their respective commissions; and also regular accounts of the state and disposition of the troops in the respective Colonies, for which purpose the Generals and officers commanding the different departments and posts are to cause regular returns to be made into the said war office.

"That they shall obtain and keep exact accounts of all the artillery, arms, ammunition, and warlike stores, belonging to the United Colonies, and of the manner in which, and the places where, the same shall from time to time be lodged and employed; and that they shall have the immediate care of all such artillery, arms, ammunition, and warlike stores, as shall not be employed in actual service; for preserving whereof, they shall have power to hire proper magazines at the public expense.

"That they shall have the care of forwarding all despatches from Congress to the Colonies and armies, and all moneys to be transmitted for the public service by order of Congress, and of providing suitable escorts and guards for the safe conveyance of such despatches and moneys, when it shall appear to them to be necessary.

"That they shall superintend the raising, fitting out, and despatching, all such land forces as may be ordered for the service of the United Colonies.

"That they shall have the care and direction of all prisoners of war, agreeable to the orders and regulations of Congress

"That they shall keep and preserve in the said office, in regular order, all original letters and papers which shall come into said office by order of Congress or otherwise, and shall also cause all draughts of letters and despatches to be made or transcribed in books to be set apart for that purpose, and shall cause fair entries in like manner to be made, and registers preserved, of all other business which shall be transacted in said office." 1

From this time, we find in almost every day's Journal references of various business to the board of war, or their reports upon such things as were referred to them. Friday, June 28. A new delegation appeared from New Jersey. Mr. William Livingston and all others, who had hitherto resisted independence, were left out. Richard Stockton, Francis Hopkinson, and Dr. John Witherspoon, were new members. Monday, July 1.

"A resolution of the Convention of Maryland, passed the 28th of June, was laid before Congress, and read, as follows: That the instructions given to their deputies in December last, be recalled, and the restrictions therein contained, removed; and that their deputies be authorized and empowered to concur with the other United Colonies, or a majority of them, in declaring the United Colo

1 For the remainder, see Journals for 1776, p. 209.

nies free and independent States; in forming a compact between them, and in making foreign alliances, &c.1

"Resolved, That this Congress will resolve itself into a committee of the whole, to take into consideration the resolution respecting independency.

"That the declaration be referred to said committee.

"The Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole. After some time, the President resumed the chair, and Mr. Harrison reported, that the committee had come to a resolution, which they desired him to report, and to move for leave to sit again.

"The resolution, agreed to by the committee of the whole, being read, the determination thereof was, at the request of a Colony, postponed till to-morrow."

I am not able to recollect whether it was on this or some preceding day, that the greatest and most solemn debate was had on the question of independence. The subject had been in contemplation for more than a year, and frequent discussions had been had concerning it. At one time and another all the arguments for it and against it had been exhausted, and were become familiar. I expected no more would be said in public, but that the question would be put and decided. Mr. Dickinson, however, was determined to bear his testimony against it with more formality. He had prepared himself apparently with great labor and ardent zeal, and in a speech of great length, and with all his eloquence, he combined together all that had before been written in pamphlets and newspapers, and all that had from time to time been said in Congress by himself and others. He conducted the debate not only with great ingenuity and eloquence, but with equal politeness and candor, and was answered in the same spirit.

No member rose to answer him, and after waiting some time,

1 The following letter, first published in Gordon's History, without the name of the person to whom it was addressed, is not without interest in this connection. A fac simile will be found in this volume.

SAMUEL CHASE TO JOHN ADAMS.

Annapolis, 28 June, 1776. Friday Eve, 9 o'clock. DEAR SIR: - I thank you for your two letters of the 17th and 24th instant. They were handed to me in Convention.

I shall offer no other apology for concluding, than that I am this moment from the House, to procure an express to follow the post, with a unanimous vote of our Convention for independence, &c. &c. See the glorious effects of county instructions. Our people have fire if not smothered. Poor General Thompson! I charge you to write to me. Now for a government.

Jubeo te bene valere. Adieu.

Your friend,

S. CHASE.

in hopes that some one less obnoxious than myself, who had been all along for a year before, and still was, represented and believed to be the author of all the mischief, would move, I determined to speak.

It has been said, by some of our historians, that I began by an invocation to the god of eloquence. This is a misrepresentation. Nothing so puerile as this fell from me. I began, by saying that this was the first time of my life that I had ever wished for the talents and eloquence of the ancient orators of Greece and Rome, for I was very sure that none of them ever had before him a question of more importance to his country and to the world. They would probably, upon less occasions than this, have begun by solemn invocations to their divinities for assistance; but the question before me appeared so simple, that I had confidence enough in the plain understanding and common sense that had been given me, to believe that I could answer, to the satisfaction of the House, all the arguments which had been produced, notwithstanding the abilities which had been displayed, and the eloquence with which they had been enforced. Mr. Dickinson, some years afterwards, published his speech.1 I had made no preparation beforehand, and never committed any minutes of mine to writing. But if I had a copy of Mr. Dickinson's before me, I would now, after nine and twenty years have elapsed, endeavor to recollect mine.

Before the final question was put, the new delegates from New Jersey came in, and Mr. Stockton, Dr. Witherspoon, and Mr. Hopkinson, very respectable characters, expressed a great desire to hear the arguments. All was silence; no one would

1 This must be a mistake. No trace of it has been found.

2 Mr. Sedgwick, in his Memoir of the Life of William Livingston, relies upon a passage in Samuel Adams's letter to R. H. Lee, printed in the Memoir of R. H. Lee, vol. i. p. 183, to prove that the new delegates from New Jersey did not arrive until after the Declaration was signed, but that they were allowed to affix their names to it. The language of his authority is certainly equivocal enough to justify his interpretation. Yet, on the other hand, nothing is better established in history than the fact that those delegates arrived in season to hear the conclusion of the debate, and were present to vote upon the final question.

Mr. Adams was in constant communication with the leading men who were pushing for independence in the Middle States, where the cause was weakest. Mr. Chase's note of triumph has already been given, but Mr. Adams had received the following equally cheering lines, thirteen days earlier, from one of the most active friends of the measure in New Jersey.

Burlington, 15 June, 1776. DEAR SIR:-Jacta est alea. We are passing the Rubicon, and our delegates in Congress, on the first of July, will vote plump. The bearer is a staunch Whig,

speak; all eyes were turned upon me. Mr. Edward Rutledge: came to me and said, laughing, "Nobody will speak but you

and will answer any questions you may need to ask. I have been very busy here, and have stolen a minute from business to write this. In haste, yours,

JONA. D. SERGEANT.

For a long time the struggle between the friends and the opponents of decided measures had been severe in New Jersey. The scale is said to have been at. last turned, in the Provincial Congress, by the information received of Governor, Tryon's plot against Washington, in New York; but, from a comparison of dates, it is clear that this event could only have come in, to complete what was already determined on. The new delegates were elected a week after the date of Mr. Sergeant's note, and nearly a week later, that is, on the 28th of June, the Jour- • nals of Congress show that Mr. Francis Hopkinson, one of the number, attended and produced the credentials of the whole. He was immediately placed upon the committee for preparing a plan of confederation.

The instructions given to the new members were not, however, peremptory, in respect to their action in favor of a declaration of independence. Power was given them to join with the delegates of the other Colonies in that act, if they should judge it necessary or expedient to the support of the just rights and liberties of America. In the Life of Richard Stockton, in Sanderson's Collection, it is said that he was so far doubtful that his mind was not absolutely made up until after he had heard Mr. Adams. This corroborates the statement of the text. But, in addition, there is a letter written many years afterwards by his son, the late Richard Stockton, to Mr. Adams, which contains the following voluntary tribute of reminiscence. It is dated in 1821, and says,

“I well remember that on my father's first return home from Congress, in the summer of 1776, after the fourth of July, he was immediately surrounded by his anxious political friends, who were eager for minute information in respect of the great event which had just taken place. Being then a boy of some observation, and of very retentive memory, I remember these words, addressed to his friends. The man to whom the country is most indebted for the great measure of independence is Mr. John Adams, of Boston. I call him the Atlas of American independence. He it was who sustained the debate, and by the force of his reasoning demonstrated not only the justice, but the expediency, of the measure." This I have often spoken of to others, and distinctly remember the very language which he used."

George Walton, a delegate from Georgia, in a letter dated the seventh of November, 1789, fixes the day upon which the greatest impression was made upon his mind by Mr. Adams in the debate. He says,

"I can truly assure you that since the first day of July, 1776, my conduct in every station in life has corresponded with the result of that great question which you so ably and faithfully developed on that day - -a scene which has ever been present to my mind. It was then that I felt the strongest attachments, and they have never departed from me." .

The strength of the resistance made to the declaration at this time is now very little understood. It gained ground through the temporizing spirit of that large class who in times of political contention are by temperament averse to a final measure, though often willing to favor an intermediate step tending the same way. Of this class a very large number were found in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, including many of their most distinguished men. They had formed a party in the very first Congress of 1774, which continued to act with great force until dispersed by the decisive measure of independence. The speakers were almost all of that side. Among them Mr. Jefferson enumerates Dickinson, Wilson, R. R. Livingston, and E. Rutledge, whilst on