independent nation was formally adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The next day, July 5th, the following resolution was adopted by the Congress then in session in Philadelphia:

"Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several Assemblies, Conventions, and Councils of Safety, and to the several Commanding Officers of the Continental Troops, that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the Army."

It will be noted that in this resolution the Continental Congress observed the most punctilious deference to the recognized authorities of the several States. No copies of the Declaration were ordered to be sent to individuals in either

of them. They were to be sent to officials or to representative bodies only.

On the same day, or within a day or two thereafter, the President of Congress, John Hancock, enclosed a copy of the Declaration to each of the States which had adopted a permanent government, and to the conventions (or provincial congresses) or to the councils or committees of safety of those States which had not yet formed regular governments, and in each case the document was accompanied by a letter in the terms following:

"I do myself the honour to enclose, in obedience to the commands of Congress, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which you will please to have proclaimed in your Colony, in such way and manner as you shall judge best. The important consequences resulting to the American States from this Declaration of Independence, considered as the ground and foundation of a future government, will naturally suggest the propriety of proclaiming it in such a mode that the people may be universally informed of it.”

On the 6th of July a copy of the Declaration was sent by President Hancock to General Washington, accompanied by a letter, in which he said:

AT PHILADELPHIA.

The first State to respond by its representative body was Pennsylvania. In the minutes of the Committee of Safety of that State, then in session at Philadelphia, under date of July 6, 1776, is the following entry:

"The President of the Congress this day sent the following Resolve of Congress, which is directed to be entered on the Minutes, to this Board:"

Here follows the resolution of the Continental Congress quoted above.

"In consequence of the above Resolve, Letters were wrote to the Counties of Bucks, Chesclosing a copy of said Declaration, requesting ter, Northumberland, Lancaster, and Berks, enthe same to be published on Monday next [July 8th], at the places where the election of Delegates are to be held.

66 Ordered, That the Sheriff of Philadelphia read or cause to be read and proclaimed at the State House in the City of Philadelphia, on Monday, the 8th day of July instant, at twelve o'clock at noon of the same day, the Declaration of the Representatives of the United Colonies of America, and that he cause all his Officers and the Constables of the said city to attend the reading thereof.

"Resolved, That every member of this Committee in or near the city be ordered to meet at the Committee Chamber before twelve o'clock on Monday, to proceed to the State House, where the Declaration of Independence is to be proclaimed.

"The Committee of Inspection of this City and Liberties were requested to attend the proclamation at the State House, on Monday next, at twelve o'clock."

Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, the In conformity with this action of the Declaration was proclaimed in Philadelphia at the time appointed, and the proceedings are described in the following brief report which appeared in the Philadelphia and New York Gazettes of the

"Philadelphia, July 8, 1776.-This day the Committee of Safety and the Committee of Inspection went in procession to the State House, where the Declaration of Independency of the United States of America was read to a very large number of the inhabitants of this City and County, which was received with general applause and heart-felt satisfaction; and in the evening our late King's Coat of Arms was brought from the Hall in the State House, where the said King's Courts were

formerly held," and burnt, amidst the acclamations of a crowd of spectators."

On the above occasion the Declaration was read by John Nixon from the platform of an observatory which had been erected many years before by the celebrated Dr. Rittenhouse, near the Walnut Street front of the State-house, for the purpose of observing a transit of Venus. At evening bonfires were lighted, the houses were illuminated, and it was not until a thunder-shower at midnight compelled the people to retire that the sounds of rejoicing were hushed.+

In a copy of The Scots Magazine for 1776, published at Edinburgh, Scotland, which is in the writer's possession, in the number for August, occurs the following curious item, descriptive of some ceremonies alleged to have been observed by the Continental Congress on the day of its adoption of the Declaration:

"A letter from Philadelphia says: The 4th of July, 1776, the Americans appointed as a day of fasting and prayer, preparatory to their dedicating their country to God, which was done in the following manner: The Congress being assembled, after having declared America independent, they had a Crown placed on a Bible, which by prayer and solemn devotion they offered to God. This religious ceremony being ended, they divided the Crown into thirteen parts, each of the United Provinces taking a part."

The "hall" in which the King's Courts had hitherto been held was in the second story of the State-house. During the period of preparation for the Revolution the Provincial Congress of Pennsyl

vania held its sessions in this room.

+ Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution, vol. ii.,

p. 287.

I have been unable to discover any confirmatory evidence of this dramatic, and, I suspect, entirely fabulous, performance. I have no doubt, however, that it was published in The Scots Magazine in entire good faith, and that it was derived from a source on which its conductors placed full reliance, as that magazine was a constant friend of this country; its pages were largely devoted to American news, its information relative to our affairs was full and generally accurate, and its sympathies for the American people in their controversy with Great Britain were generously and frankly avowed.

AT TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

Although nothing is recorded on the subject in the minutes of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey at this time, the formal ratification by that body having been deferred to a later period, probably from prudential or politic reasons, yet certain of its more active members caused the Declaration to be proclaimed in Trenton, where the Provincial Congress was then in session, on the same day when it was promulgated in Philadelphia, namely, July 8th. The following description of the observances appeared in the New York and Philadelphia Gazettes of July 9th, and also in The Scots Magazine for August, 1776, from which last it is here given verbatim:

"Trenton, July 8, 1776.-The Declaration of Independence was this day proclaimed here, together with the new Constitution of the Colony of late established, and the resolve

The Constitution of New Jersey had been adopted on July 2, 1776.

of the Provincial Congress for continuing the administration of justice during the interim. The members of the Provincial Congress, the gentlemen of the Committee, the officers and privates of the Militia, under arms, and a large concourse of the inhabitants attended on this great and solemn occasion. The Declaration

and other proceedings were received with loud acclamations. The people are now convinced, of what we ought long since to have known, that our enemies have left us no middle way between perfect freedom and abject slavery. In the field, we trust, as well as in council, the inhabitants of New Jersey will be found ever ready to support the freedom and independence of America."

AT EASTON, PENNSYLVANIA.

On the same day that the Declaration was receiving the approval of the people of Philadelphia and Trenton, it was proclaimed in Easton, Pennsylvania, with the like satisfactory result, as appears from the following contemporaneous account:

Easton, Northampton County, July 8, 1776. -This day the Declaration of Independency was received here, and proclaimed in the following order: The Colonel, and all other Field Officers of the first Battalion, repaired to the Court House, the Light Infantry Company marching there with drums beating, fifes playing, and the Standard (the device of which is the Thirteen United Colonies) which was ordered to be displayed; and after that the Declaration was read aloud to a great number of spectators, who gave their hearty assent with three loud huzzas, and cried out, 'May God long preserve the Free and Independent States of America.""

Another account of the occurrence is given in a newspaper published in German at Easton, by Henry Miller, in its issue of July 10, 1776, which is thus translated:

"Immediately on the news of this eventthe Declaration-becoming known at Easton, it was hailed by the citizens of the town and surrounding country by a public demonstration.

Captain Abraham Labar, with his company, paraded through the streets with drums beating and colors flying, and was followed and joined by the citizens en masse. They met in the Court-house, where the Declaration of Independence was read by Robert Levers."

AT PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY.

"Princetown, New Jersey, July 10.- Last night Nassau Hall was grandly illuminated, and independency proclaimed under a triple volley of musketry, and universal acclamations for the prosperity of the United Colonies. The ceremony was conducted with the greatest decorum."

AT NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY.

The compiler of this memorial has not been able to find any contemporaneous account of the reception and promulgation of the Declaration in New Brunswick; nor is it probable that such an account ever existed, except in private letters. There is, however, satisfactory grounds for the belief that a copy of it was received on July 9th by the resident members of the Committee of Safety (Colonel Azariah Dunham and Hendrick Fisher), or by the County Committee of Correspondence, and that it was read at a public meeting held either on that or on the following day. There are several traditional accounts of its proclamation at this place, which, if collated, would doubtless give fuller and more accurate information as to the incident than may be derived from any of them singly. The version of it which the writer hereof had from his grandfather, Jacob Dunham, M.D., in 1830 or 1831, was substantially as follows:

"When the Declaration of Independence was brought to New Brunswick, I was a boy about nine years old. There was great excitement in the town over the news, most of the people rejoicing that we were free and independent, but a few looking very sour over it. My father [Colonel Azariah Dunham] was one of the Committee of Safety of the province, and also one of the County Committee of Correspondence, and one of the Town Committee of Inspection and Observation. The Declaration was brought by an express rider, who was at once furnished with a fresh horse, and despatched on his way to New York. The County Committee and the Town Committee were immediately convened, and it was decided that the Declaration should be read in the public street [Albany Street], in front of the White Hall tavern, that the reader should be Colonel John Neilson, and that the members of the two committees should exert themselves to secure the attendance of as many as possible of the stanch friends of independence, so as to overawe any disaffected Tories, and resent any interruption of the meeting that they

Jersey. The following account of its reception there is extracted from The Scots Magazine for August, 1776:

not numerous, they were, most of them, men of wealth and influence, and were very active. Accordingly, at the time appointed [I cannot now recall the hour, if, indeed, my grandfather