[1] THE LEE RESOLUTION, BORN OF THE VIRGINIA RESOLVE
“(They) have shown much weakness in overrating the Lee Motion in
Congress, all the merit of which belongs to the Convention of Virginia, which
gave a positive instruction to her Deputies to make the Motion. As this measure
of Virginia makes a link in the history of our National birth, it is but right
that every circumstance attending it should be ascertained & preserved. You
probably can best tell where the instruction had its origin & by whose pen it
was prepared. The impression at the time was that it was communicated in a
letter from you to Mr. Wythe, (then) a member of the (Virginia) Convention.”
James Madison, 6 September 1823, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.
The Virginia Resolve of 15 May 1776 was passed by the Fifth Virginia
Convention at Williamsburg. This historic three-part resolve became the basis of
action plans for three America-wide measures later recommended for adoption by
the Continental Congress. The three measures addressed were: [i] Independency;
[ii] Diplomacy; and [iii] Confederacy. Richard Henry Lee, head of the Virginia
delegation, was "instructed" by the Virginia Convention to move the Virginia
Resolve as a Congressional resolution to be adopted on behalf of the Grand
American Association of the thirteen United Colonies of North America. The
timing of its introduction before Congress was left to the discretion of the
Virginia delegation.
The Virginia Resolve was "laid before" Congress on the Monday morning of
27 May 1776, along with a similar resolve submitted by the North Carolina
delegation, adopted the previous month at North Carolina’s Halifax Convention,
and dated 12 April 1776. On 27 May 1776, both resolves were “read” and “ordered
to lie on the table.” This event marked the day that Congress was served formal
notice by two colonies that the time had arrived for all the colonies,
thirteen-as-one, to prepare to make the sovereign break with the Kingdom of
Great
Britain.
Eleven days later, on 7 June 1776, in accordance with the parliamentary
mode of introducing consideration of a new measure, the Virginia Resolve was
"moved" by Richard Henry Lee of the Virginia delegation, and "seconded" by John
Adams of the Massachusetts delegation. On this day and by this historic step the
Virginia Resolve of May 15th, earlier tabled on May 27th, became the Lee
Resolution of June 7th. After two days of protracted debate on the Lee
Resolution, conducted throughout Saturday the 8th and Monday the 10th, the
process culminated in a crucial, adopted resolve of Congress, enacted on the
late Monday afternoon of the 10th.
By the resolve of June 10th Congress agreed to defer further debate on the
Independency measure for three weeks, in order to give adequate time for each of
the still undecided colonies to come to a decision on how to instruct its
delegation on the three measures proposed. Within two days of this June 10th
decision three interlocking committees had been established, one for each of the
three measures in the Lee Resolution: [i] A committee to prepare a broadside
manifesto to justify Independency declared; [ii] A committee to prepare a
constitution for Confederacy; and [iii] A committee to prepare template treaties
of mutual defense and commerce. Thus was the Congressional stage set for the
decisive debate and vote on Independency expected to take place on Monday, 1
July 1776.
[2] THE VIRGINIA RESOLVE, CONCEIVED ON 22 DECEMBER 1775
“The standard histories do not explain the demand by the patriots that
Parliament should have no authority in the colonies except to regulate ocean
commerce. They do not explain what the colonists meant when they said that they
were willing to be ruled by the king alone. They do not explain that the only
definition of a colony that the colonists accepted, was one which described a
community like the old Greek colonies, sent out by a mother country with the
intention that it should become absolutely independent, and that the mother
country’s only duty towards a colony would be to protect it from other nations
and guarantee its independence.”
Professor Sydney George Fisher
(1856-1927), The Legendary and Myth-Making Process in Histories of the
American Revolution, p. 62 (Second, revised edition, 18 April 1912 in the
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, pp. 53-76, Vol. LI, No. 204,
April-June, 1912.)
On 22 December 1775 Great Britain’s Parliament enacted a
royal proclamation of George III. The enactment prohibited all intercourse with
the thirteen colonies, convicted the American colonies of being enemies of the
Crown, henceforth to be punished by their removal from the protection and
authority of their king. This event was the end-result and the fulfillment of
two historic events of 23 August 1775. This was the very day that North
Carolina, at the Hillsborough Convention, became the 13th colony to ratify
America’s Articles of Association, marking the birth of the Thirteen
United Colonies of North America. On this same day in England a royal
proclamation of King George III accused the colonies of being in a state of
rebellion in the aftermath of the battles of Concord, Lexington and Bunker
Hill. The proclamation ordered its suppression. Singled out for punishment were
certain “dangerous and ill designing men” bent on fomenting open and defiant
rebellion.
The patriot leadership in the Colonies saw the situation
differently, justifying their position on the nature of the covenant established
by the original colonial charters issued by the Crown. They believed that when
Parliament and the ministries violated the Colonists' rights pursuant to the
Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Rights (1628) and the English Bill of Rights
(1689), this was a breech of the Crown’s covenant with the Colonists. The
American leadership attempted to resolve these differences. In July of 1775, the
Colonists submitted the Olive Branch Petition to the Crown wherein they affirmed
their loyalty to the Crown and sought to resolve their grievances peacefully.
The Crown, unpersuaded by the Olive Branch Petition, eventually encouraged
Parliament to pass the Prohibitory Act of December 1775, declaring the Colonies
to be enemies of the Crown, removed from its protection and authority. This
became the flashpoint that turned America’s leadership away from reconciliation
to separation; a majority of their fellow Americans soon joined them.
[3] THE DAY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCY: 1 JULY 1776
“Monday the 1st of July is fixed upon to decide in Congress the grand
question of American Independence.”
As reported in The Virginia Gazette, on 21 June 1776.
“I have only time to
inform you
that yesterday
[July 1st] was agitated in Congress
the great question
of Independency,
& as the facts
are as well known at the Coffee Houses
of Philadelphia City as in Congress I may go on to inform
you
that in a Committee of the Whole House it
was carried
by nine Colonies.”
Delegate Elbridge Gerry,
2 July 1776, in a letter to James
Warren of Massachusetts
On July 1st (about 6:30 p.m., as this writer reckons it.), "After 9 hours
of debate" (according to Jefferson’s notes for that day), the Committee of the
Whole House of the thirteen United Colonies voted 9-2-(2) for "Independency"
[Two (2) neutral positions didn’t make the count by the Chairman: the N.Y.
delegation abstained; and the Delaware delegation, two of three attending,
deadlocked between McKean and Read, Rodney only joining the following day to
break the tie in favor.] According to standard parliamentary rules of order for
such a majority vote, Committee chairman Virginia delegate Harrison was then in
a position to report the Lee Resolution as ready for adoption by the Congress,
on that very evening of July 1st; and if Chairman Harrison had done so, the
enactment of Independency would have been officially recorded as an accomplished
fact, as “resolved,” although not “resolved unanimously.”
In order to adequately explain why Congress chose to
defer the then-inevitable outcome to the next day, until July 2nd, a number of
negotiating twists and wrinkles informing the story need to be examined. Very
briefly, a deal was cut for the next day in order to achieve near-unanimity. The
record shows that South Carolina would turn its vote to Aye if Delaware too
delivered an Aye, with the anticipated next day arrival of Delaware’s
tie-breaking delegate Caesar Rodney. An Aye for an Aye, so to speak. However,
for the rest of the story the reader should refer to the well crafted expertise
of historian J. H. Powell's book, General Washington and the Jack Ass, in
the chapter, "The Day of American Independence, July 1, 1776." (N.J:
South Brunswick, Thomas Yoseloff, 1969, 10 essays, 363 pp.) In
a chapter amounting in scope to a ‘mini-book’ (pp. 119-176), this event date
marking the majority vote for Independency has been rightly accorded the
distinction of effectively constituting the American nation's true Independence
Day.
The immediate public reaction in Philadelphia, acclaiming the decision of
Congress, came on the evening of July 2nd and on the next day. For weeks the
American public had been waiting expectantly for the outcome of the July 1st
vote scheduled three weeks earlier. Given the number of newspapers throughout
the thirteen colonies reporting the significance of the upcoming July 1st vote,
the public's expectations were being heightened in the process. On the very
evening of July 2nd and on the next day, the Philly newspapers reported the
outcome of the official vote, Independence declared on July 2nd. These pre-July
4th reports were picked up by newspapers in other cities in the days
thereafter.
See Charles Warren's essay, "Fourth of July Myths"
(The WILLIAM AND MARY QUARTERLY: Third Series, Vol. II,
No. 3, July 1945. pp. 237-272); also, see David McCullough's book,
1776, p. 135, regarding the Saturday, July 6th celebrations in New York
City, when the Philly newspaper accounts of July "2nd” reached New York City, 3
days before the newspaper accounts of A DECLARATION’s text, and its
official July 5th distribution.
[4] JULY 4TH, AFTER THE FACT: RIGHT STORY, WRONG DATE
“It is often forgotten that the document which we know as
the Declaration of Independence is not the official act by which the
Continental Congress voted in favor of separation from Great Britain. . .
Strictly speaking, this act of the 2 of July
was the official declaration of independence; and if we were a
nation of antiquaries we should no doubt find an incongruity in celebrating the
anniversary of our independence on the 4 of July.”
Professor Carl Lotus Becker (1873-1945), THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: A Study in
the History of Political Ideas, pg.
3 [N.Y: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1922.
286 pp.; and reprinted: N.Y: Alfred A Knopf, 1942, with a
new author’s Introduction of 14 pages (pp.v-xvii)]
Underlying the point of view of this section, derived from a
precise treatment of the facts of the record, is the
recognition of the disparity between what America’s
charter document purports to be
and what the average American believes it to be. Here are
the relevant facts: The Declaration of Independence was
the formal act of separation from Great Britain, as voted
by 12 of 13 delegations in Congress on July 2. The
broadside manifesto dated July 4th, and distributed by Congress the day after,
is A DECLARATION by the Representatives of the United States
of America in General Congress assembled,
published to convincingly proclaim to the
world the reasons why the July 2nd declared
separation from the Kingdom of Great Britain
was necessary and right --- in short, a published
argument as manifesto, dated July 4th,
in support of a Congressional action,
dated July 2nd. In later years’ correspondence Thomas
Jefferson confirmed this much to be so.
Furthermore, that after New York ratified the Declaration of
Independence on July 9th, only then making unanimous the thirteen Colonies
commitment to Independence, did Congress take steps to prepare a more
convincingly & suitably titled second edition of the published broadside. This
second edition, unlike the first, is the signed edition forever on display in
the U.S. National Archives, The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united
States of America, first signed on August 2nd by most of the 56 delegates
eventually to do so.
Considered from a different angle on the same array of facts, the July 2nd
Declaration of Independence is that brief, but crucial closing part of
the July 4th manifesto’s text; found in the last five lines of the final
paragraph. A final paragraph reporting what had been declared on July 2nd,
following after four paragraphs explaining and justifying that earlier
declaration. Therefore the near-universal belief that the Declaration of
Independence was not just this paragraph but either of the two published
editions of Jefferson’s manifesto, either A DECLARATION or The
Unanimous Declaration, each in its entirety, is a belief born of confusion
reinforced by incompetent scholarship. A close reading of the facts should
dispel that belief.
So it took perhaps no more than fifty years of accreting myth-making by
popular writers to finally confuse the facts of that historic week in the
national memory, and eclipse the significance of July 2nd vis-à-vis July 4th. As
Philadelphia historian David Freeman Hawke tellingly put it in Honorable
Treason, his book about the July 2nd declaration of Independence and
Jefferson’s July 4th manifesto, "The official printer placed July 4 at the top
of his broadside of the Declaration and thus accidentally that day came to be
celebrated with the pomp and ceremony John Adams expected to be given over to
July 2, the day Congress declared independence.” [1976, p. 187]. Also, a century
earlier historian Mellen Chamberlain aptly summed it up: “When
Lee’s resolution for Independency was agreed to by the Congress on the 2nd of
July, the battle had been fought and the victory won. …What was done on
July 2nd realized the ardent wishes of the patriotic party in the thirteen
colonies. Its consummated act was a notable achievement of advocacy; and the
great patriot, John Adams, fondly hoped that it would be celebrated to the
remotest times. But it is otherwise: the glory of the act is overshadowed by the
glory of its annunciation.” [Authentication of the Declaration
of Independence, 1884, p. 27]
[5] AMERICAN UNION: INDEPENDENCY, DIPLOMACY & CONFEDERACY
The 15 May 1776 Virginia Resolve, proposing Independency, Alliances and
Confederacy for America, was fulfilled because of the actions of the Continental
Congress over a period of precisely eighteen months, between 27 May 1776 when
the Virginia Resolve was submitted to Congress, and 28 November 1777 when a post
rider set out from York, Pennsylvania, America’s temporary capital, to deliver
the proposed constitution, the Articles of Confederation, to each of the
13 States for their approvals. On 28 November 1777 Congress had completed its
part in fulfilling the mandates of the Virginia Resolve. The resulting historic
high-point events were three:
[1] Independency declared on the afternoon of 2 July 1776. International
fulfillment of this declaration came more than seven years later, with the
Revolutionary war fought and won. The Peace Treaties of Paris and Versailles
were signed on 3 September 1783. The Paris treaty, in the morning, at 10:30 am;
the Versailles treaty, in the afternoon, at 3:00 pm. From this moment the
rightful sovereign place of the U.S.A in the community of nations became an
accepted fact by the European powers. Treaty ratification by Congress took place
at Annapolis, MD, on 14 January 1784; and ratifications were exchanged to give
legal effect, on the evening of 12 May 1784, at the residence of Benjamin
Franklin, in Plassy, France.
[2] Diplomacy fulfilled by the treaties with France: First accomplished by
the treaties of alliance, and amity & commerce; signed on 6 February 1778;
ratified by Congress on 4 May 1778, and treaty ratifications exchanged to give
legal effect, on 17 July 1778.
[3] Confederacy and its constitution: When enactment of the thirteen
Articles ofConfederation as proposed by Congress was taken up for
consideration by the thirteen State governments. The period of consideration
lasted from December 1777 until February 1781, during which time each State took
its turn at ratification. The 13th State government to do so was Maryland’s,
which ratified the Articles ofConfederation, on 2 February 1781.
During the late afternoon the Governor signed the act into law at the Annapolis
State House, and thus authorized the subsequent ceremonial confirmation of
Maryland’s ratification, on 1 March 1781, in a 12:00 noon signing ceremony
before Congress at Philadelphia.
Each of
these high-point events contained a number of milestones along the nation’s road
to constitutional Union, finally achieved by the unanimous completion of the
thirteen ratifications of the Articles of Confederation. As Masonic
Brother Ronald E. Heaton summed it up in his book, Masonic Membership of the
Founding Fathers, “the war was fought and finally won. The independence
declared by the colonies in 1776 had become a reality in 1781.” Fifty-five
months after The thirteen united States of North America was established
in Congress on 15 July 1776, with New York’s enactment of Independency and its
ratification of the Declaration of Independence, on July 9th in the White
Plains Convention, America’s States were at long last politically transformed by
the completion of their Confederacy, to be, and as they have been ever since,
The United States of America.
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