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Show THE DAY THEY LAUNCHED THE PAPER SKIFF 7 entry in his journaj: Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and, of right, ought to be Free and Independent States: that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved. There is no evidence that the delegates; broke into happy fireworks. There was work to be done. Immediately after the vote they tore into the document itself, dissecting it with scalpels of inquiry and challenge for truth and meaning, word by word and phrase by phrase, while Jefferson sat and sweated in silence. Franklin entertained him with a sympathetic story. Surprisingly, they put it back together much as it was, polished and better. This occupied them until the close of the fourth and all were satisfied. The treasonable nature of this act sobered them mightily. The names of those who signed the embossed document sometime in August were kept secret until early 1777, or after the victories of Delaware and Trenton. "Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?" asked Benjamin Rush of John Adams years later. Nevertheless, news ran through the town like a fox. The King's arms were torn down and burned immediately. By July eighth a proper |