Our Viewpoint

If you think Congress members have trouble cooperating with each other today, you really should read up on how one of our most beloved sacred documents was created 248 years ago. It’s a miracle that it ever got done and it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t some kind of divine intervention.

Our two primary political parties today are constantly at odds with one another. The only thing they agree on is that the other one is wrong. Try to envision 13 separate entities, some with divisions within themselves, attempting to make a decision that would impact the entire world. The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 delegates from the 13 colonies and though most wanted a clean break from Britain, some, like John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, hoped for reconciliation, objected to independence, and refused to sign it, although even with his objection, he served in the Continental Army and fought against the Redcoats. New York abstained, but eventually signed.

For weeks after Richard Henry Lee delivered Virginia’s June 7 resolution proposing independence, representatives of the Second Continental Congress argued over a variety of issues from fishing rights to calling King George III a tyrant to slavery. One facet that made the passing of the proposal challenging and remarkable was that the vote had to be unanimous. Can you imagine that taking place today? Today’s Congress can’t agree on whether or not the sun should shine.

According to the U.S. Library of Congress, the committee assigned to write the document — Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman — made 47 alterations before the rest of the Continental Congress tore into it on June 28, making numerous revisions, some still hoping for reconciliation with King George III.

Jefferson, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, documented that he was displeased at the changes by Congress, which included the removal of an entire paragraph about transgressions toward the British people and the king, as well as a passage condemning slavery. Jefferson, though a slave owner himself, wrote in his draft: “He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.” It was removed to appease South Carolina and probably Georgia, which might have struck down the document if left intact. The Delaware assembly was divided with Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney for it and George Read against independence. Rodney was ill with cancer and not present when it came time to vote. McKean had to travel hundreds of miles on horseback to get Rodney back for the vote, according to History.com.

Some felt America was not ready to take on the British Empire and a war would lead to a civil war. Others felt the colonies would split and some would fight on the side of Britain. Livingston, even though he helped write the manuscript, refused to sign the final copy because he believed they were premature in declaring independence. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina was opposed to independence, but signed it. And unlike the famous John Trumbull painting of 1818, which depicted the representatives lining up to sign it on July 4, 1776, the representatives scattered immediately after approving it. Most affixed their signatures on Aug. 2, 1776; Thomas McKean of Delaware was the last man to sign it on Jan. 18, 1777.

One of the most unique stories about the signers is that John Adams of Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia died on the same day — July 4, 1826 — exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Charles Carroll of Maryland died in 1832, the last signer to pass.

— Ed Moreth