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Judge James Wilson of Pennsylvania, a toady to Dickinson, timidly suggests that more time is needed. Highly charged emotions temporarily erupt into a brawl, but Hancock restores order.Įdward "Ned" Rutledge of South Carolina claims that the South wishes to be ruled neither by England nor the North. A discussion then commences, in which Dickinson defends England, but other delegates complain about repressions, high taxes and abolished rights and Franklin suggests that America has spawned a new race requiring a new nation. When Stephen Hopkins, one of three delegates from Rhode Island, returns from a brief trip to the privy down the street, he casts the deciding vote to continue the debate. As Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, calls the roll, six colonies vote in favor of postponement and six against, with one abstention.
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When Lee returns, he presents Virginia's resolution for independence, but John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, leading the opposition, makes a counter proposal to postpone the issue indefinitely. George Washington of the Continental Army, frequent, depressing missives, reporting shortages, ill-trained soldiers and the intention of British troops to split the colonies in half at New York. Meanwhile, Congress, headed by its president, John Hancock, receives by courier from Gen. Franklin suggests that Adams let someone more popular lead the cause and convinces Richard Henry Lee, a Virginian delegate from an old, influential family, to solicit the support of the Virginia House of Burgesses. On another day, Adams complains about Congress' indecisiveness to Ben Franklin, who is one of three delegates from Pennsylvania. In her reply, Abby refuses unless Adams agrees to send her sewing pins, which are scarce in wartime. In a letter, Adams writes Abby that the king is sending twelve thousand mercenaries to subdue the colonists and asks her to coordinate the neighboring women to make saltpeter to use in the manufacture of gun powder. Instead, the frustrated Adams leaves the building, but regains his composure by thinking about his wife Abigail, who remains in Massachusetts to manage their farm. Although many congressmen support the "independency" issue, all are offended by Adams' frequent tirades and implore him to sit down. He got an awful lot of it very wrong.In Philadelphia, on, Massachusetts delegate John Adams urges the Continental Congress to debate whether officially to secede from England. "There was no formal signing where everybody was present. Trumbull's famous painting, The Declaration of Independence 4 July 1776, represents the signing of the document as "an extremely formal scene."īut McCullough says it never took place. George Washington, "considered his life's cause, his great mission, to record for subsequent generations the drama and the participants of his time," McCullough says. The great painter John Trumbull, who served in the Revolutionary War as an aide to Gen. McCullough has also included paintings from the time that he says provide historians with as much insight as the written word. Now there's a new version of the book 1776, with some of those diary entries and letters. When the Pulitzer Prize-winning author first wrote about the Revolution, he based much of his narrative on diaries and letters. "There was no coverage of the war by the press." "The illustration, the reporting on the Revolutionary War was practically nothing by our terms," author David McCullough tells Steve Inskeep. That was not the case during America's first war. The Iraq war is chronicled constantly in photographs, newspaper stories, first-person accounts, editorials and books.