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"DECLARATION OF INDEPENDEN

"PHILADELPHIA, June 16

"MESSRS. Wм. M'CORKLE AND SON: "GENTLEMEN-Several applications having be made to me, to state the errors which I had observe mentioned, in the publications of the names of the the Continental Congress, who declared in favor o pendence of the United States, on the 4th of Jul have not, at present, sufficient health and leisure to rally to each application. There can be but one c ment of facts: One public statement, therefore, press, will serve the purpose of the gentlemen who the request, and may also give satisfaction to th others, who have turned their thoughts upon the I am correct in my statement, it may be of use to torians; if not, my errors can be readily correcte therefore, by means of your paper, to make the foll ment of the facts within my knowledge, relative to of inquiry:

"On Monday, the first day of July, 1776, the a Congress for and against the Declaration of In having been exhausted, and the measure fully con Congress resolved itself into a committee of the w question was put by the chairman, and all the Sto the affirmative, except Pennsylvania, which was in t and Delaware, which was equally divided. Penn that time, had seven members, viz., John Morton Franklin, James Wilson, John Dickinson, Rob Thomas Willing, and Charles Humphreys. All w on the first of July, and the three first named vo Declaration of Independence, the remaining four The State of Delaware had three members, Cæsa George Read, and myself. George Read and I we I voted for it, George Read against it. When the resumed the chair, the chairman of the committee o made his report, which was not acted upon until Th

When the Congress assembled, the question was put e report of the committee of the whole, and approved by State. Of the members from Pennsylvania, the three s before, voted in the affirmative, and the two last in the ve. John Dickinson and Robert Morris were not present, id not take their seats on that day. Cæsar Rodney, for tate of Delaware, voted with me in the affirmative, and e Read in the negative.

ome months after this, I saw printed publications of the s of those gentlemen who had, as it was said, voted for eclaration of Independence, and observed that my own was omitted. I was not a little surprised at, nor could unt for the omission; because I knew that, on the 24th ne preceding, the deputies from the committees of Pennia, assembled in provincial conference, held at the Cars' Hall, Philadelphia, which had met on the 18th, and

me their President, had unanimously declared their gness to concur in a vote of the Congress, declaring the d Colonies free and independent States, and had ordered declaration to be signed, and their President to deliver it Congress, which accordingly I did the day following. I also, that a regiment of associators, of which I was coload, at the end of May before, unanimously made the same ation. These circumstances were mentioned, at the time, tlemen of my acquaintance. The error remained uncortill the year 1781, when I was appointed to publish the of Pennsylvania, to which I prefixed the Declaration of endence, and inserted my own name, with the names of olleagues. Afterwards, in 1797, when the late A. J. 3, Esq., then Secretary of the Commonwealth, was aped to publish an edition of the laws, on comparing the 3 published as subscribed to the Declaration of Independhe observed a variance, and the omission, in some publiis, of the name of Thomas M'Kean. Having procured tificate from the Secretary of State, that the name of as M'Kean was affixed in his own handwriting to the al Declaration of Independence, though omitted in the als of Congress, Mr. Dallas then requested an explanation

been misrepresented, misstated, and erroneously i seeming authenticity) under my own eye, as in m render those who doubt of everything not altoget] ble. The publication of the Declaration of Inde the 4th day of July, 1776, as printed in the jour gress, vol. ii. p. 242, &c., and also in the acts of bodies since, so far as respects the names of the deputies who made that declaration, has led to t flection. By the printed publications referred appear as if the fifty-five gentlemen, whose nam printed, and none other, were on that day perso in Congress, and assenting to the declaration; truth is otherwise. The following gentlemen we bers on the fourth of July, 1776, namely, Mathe Benjamin Rush, George Clymer, James Smyth, G and George Ross, Esquires. The five last nam chosen delegates until the twentieth of that month; until the twelfth day of September following, nom his seat in Congress until the fourth of Novembe four months after. The journals of Congress, 277 and 442, as well as those of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, page 53, and of the General New Hampshire, establish these facts. Although tlemen named had been very active in the Am and some of them, to my own knowledge, warml its independence previous to the day on which it yet I personally know that none of them were in that day.

1

"Modesty should not rob any man of his just by that honor his modesty cannot be offended. not in the printed journals of Congress, as a par claration of Independence, and this, like an erro concoction, has vitiated most of the subsequent pub yet the fact is, that I was then a member of Cong State of Delaware, was personally present in Congre in favor of Independence on the fourth day of Jul

ted for independence.

do not know how the misstatement in the printed jouras happened. The manuscript public journal has no annexed to the Declaration of Independence, nor has the journal; but it appears by the latter that, on the nineday of July, 1776, the Congress directed that it should rossed on parchment, and signed by every member, and was so produced on the second of August, and signed. s interlined in the secret journal, in the hand-writing arles Thompson, Esq., the Secretary. The present Secof State of the United States, and myself, have lately ed the journals, and seen this. The journal was first 1 by Mr. John Dunlap in 1778, and probably copies, with mes then signed to it, were printed in August, 1776, and Ir. Dunlap printed the names from one of them.'

"Your most obedient servant,

"THOS. M'KEAN."

ry State, except Pennsylvania and Delaware, had voted e declaration. It was deemed important that the final hould be unanimous. Mr. M'Kean, without delay, deed a special messenger, at his private expense, for Mr. y, who was in Delaware, and who reached the door of the House in his boots and spurs, as Congress was opening morning of the fourth. He and Mr. M'Kean entered Il in haste, and without time or opportunity to exchange I about the thrilling subject of their thoughts, the progs began; the great question was put. Mr. M'Kean r. Rodney answered for Delaware, and voted in the afive, which was two against Mr. Read; two of the disng members from Pennsylvania were absent, and that also voted in the affirmative. So that, by the resolution erseverance of Mr. M'Kean, the final vote of all the prowere unanimously cast in favor of the Declaration of endence; an event of the most obvious and eminent imice to the Revolution.

November term, 1765, and February term, 1766, Judge

on ordered the

of the cont

nycoond with thain

without interruptions,

his seat in Congress ing in 1774 until after the peace in 1783.

Duri

of time, he was President of Congress; colonel of volunteers under Washington, for one campaig tice of Pennsylvania for twenty-four years, and a vernor of that State for eight years.

He died in Philadelphia, June 24th, 1817, fourth year of his age, loaded with honors. Posterity will cherish his memory, as one of and useful fathers of a mighty republic.

Cancia mens recti fameæ mendocia ridet.

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