these united colonies are, subjection to the kings of Great Britand of right ought to ain and all others who may hereafter be, free and independent claim by, through, or under them; we states; that they are absolved from all alle- utterly dissolve all political connecgiance to the British tion which may heretofore have subcrown, and that all po- sisted between us and the people or litical connection between them and the state parliament of Great Britain

and of Great Britain is, and finally we do assert and declare these ought to be, totally dis- colonies to be free and independent solved ;

states,] and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.

And for the support of this declawith a firm reliance on ration, [ ] we mutually pledge to the protection of divine each other our lives, our fortunes, providence, and our sacred honor.

The world has long since passed judgment upon the relative merits of these two forms of the American Declaration, and awarded the meed of pre-eminence to the primitive one. The amendments obliterated some of its best and brightest features; impaired the beauty and force of others; and softened the general tone of the whole instrument.

The Declaration thus amended in committee of the whole, was reported to the House on the 4th of July, agreed to, and signed by every member present except Mr Dickinson. On the 19th of July it was ordered to be engrossed on parchment; and on the 2d of August, the engrossed copy, after being compared at the table with the original, was ordered to be signed by every member.

On the same day that Independence was declared, Mr Jefferson was appointed one of a committee of three, to devise an appropriate Coat of Arms for the republic of the United States of America.'

The Declaration was received by the people with un

bounded admiration and joy. On the 8th of July it was promulgated with great solemnity, at Philadelphia, and saluted by the assembled multitude with peals on peals of acclamation. On the 11th it was published in New York, and proclaimed before the American Army, then assembled in the vicinity, with all the pomp and circumstance of a military pageant. It was received with exultation by the collected chivalry of the Revolution. They filled the air with their shouts, and shook the earth with the thunders of their artillery. In Boston, the popular transports were unparalleled. The national manifesto was proclaimed from the balcony of the capitol, in the presence of all the authorities, civil and military, and of an innumerable concourse of people. An immense banquet was prepared, at which the authorities and all the principal citizens attended, and drank toasts expressive of enthusiastic veneration for liberty, and of detestation of tyrants. The rejoicings were continued through the night, and every ensign of royalty that adorned either the public or private edifice, was demolished before morning.

Similar demonstrations of patriotic enthusiasın attended the reception of the Declaration in all the cities and chief towns of the continent.

In Virginia, the annunciation was greeted with graver tokens of public felicitation. The convention decreed that the name of the King should be expunged from the liturgy of the established religion. All the remaining emblems of royal authority were superseded by appropriate representations of the new order of things. A new coat of arms for the commonwealth was immediately ordered.

The author of the Declaration himself was not unconscious of the amazing consequences which would flow from it, when thus ushered before the world as the simultaneous fiat of the whole people. On the contrary, they formed the theme of his constant reflection and

of his proudest prognostications. The emancipation of the whole family of nations, as the ultimate result, was the immovable conviction of his mind. It was in unison with the reveries of his early youth; and experience but confirmed him in the animating presentiment. Stirring effusions upon this topic abound in his private memoranda, and in his familiar correspondence with friends. Speaking of the French Revolution as the first link in the chain of great consequences, he says, in his notes upon that ill-starred drama :

As yet, we are but in the first chapter of its history. The appeal to the rights of man, which had been made in the United States, was taken up by France, first of the European nations. From her the spirit has spread over those of the South. The tyrants of the North have allied indeed against it; but it is irresistible. Their opposition will only multiply its millions of human victims; their own satellites will catch it, and, the condition of man will be finally and greatly meliorated. This is a wonderful instance of great events from small causes. So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condition of all its inhabitants.'

Again, in a letter to John Adams, in 1823, the kindling prophecy is pursued.

'The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it. Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called on, to think and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their ignorance and bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands of the Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This is the present situation of Europe and Spanish America. But it is not desperThe light which has been shed on mankind by the art of printing, has eminently changed the condition of the world. As yet, that light has dawned on the middling classes only of the men in Europe. The kings

ate.

and the rabble, of equal ignorance, have not yet received its rays; but it continues to spread, and while printing is preserved, it can no more recede than the sun return on his course. A first attempt to recover the right of self-government may fail, so may a second, a third, &c. But as a younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment becomes more and more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some subsequent one of the ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. In France, the first effort was defeated by Robespierre, the second by Bonaparte, the third by Louis XVIII, and his holy allies; another is yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the spirit; and all will attain representative government, more or less perfect. This is now well understood to be a necessary check on Kings, whom they will probably think it more prudent to chain and tame, than to exterminate. To attain all this, however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation. For what inheritance so valuable, can man leave to his posterity? The spirit of the Spaniard, and his deadly and eternal hatred to a Frenchman, give me much confidence that he will never submit, but finally defeat the atrocious violation of the laws of God and man, under which he is suffering; and the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes, afford reasonable hope, that that nation will settle down in a temperate representative government, with an executive properly subordinated to that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Greece, will follow suit. You and I shall look down from another world on these glorious achievements to man, which will add to the joys even of heaven.'

Such are the ulterior tendencies and probable results of this stupendous act. Enough has already elapsed to demonstrate, that the author was scarcely more happy in originating its principles, than in predicting its glorious consequences.

The term for which Mr Jefferson had been elected to Congress, expired on the 11th of August, '76; and he had communicated to the Convention of Virginia, in

June preceding, his intention to decline a re-appointment. But his excuses were overruled by that body, and he was unanimously re-elected. On receiving intelligence of the result, gratifying as it evidently was, he addressed a second letter to the chairman of the Convention, in which he adhered to his original resolution, as follows:

'I am sorry the situation of my domestic affairs renders it indispensably necessary, that I should solicit the substitution of some other person here, in my room. The delicacy of the House will not require me to enter minutely into the private causes which render this necessary. I trust they will be satisfied I would not have urged it again, were it not unavoidable. I shall with cheerfulness continue in duty here till the expiration of our year, by which time I hope it will be convenient for my successor to attend.'

He continued in Congress until the 2d of September following, when his successor having arrived, he resigned his seat and returned to Virginia.

Thus closed the extraordinary career of Mr Jefferson in the Continental Congress. His actual attendance in that renowned Legislature, had been only about nine months; and yet he had succeeded in impressing his character, in distinct and legible traces, upon the whole. The result is remarkable when considered in connection

with his immature age. He had at this time attained only his thirty-third year, and was the youngest man but one in the session of "76.

We have been restrained by our design, to the capital and distinguishing points in his course. The minor features of his service, while engaged in conducting the general administration, were proportioned to the same standard; but they are shorn of all interest by the overshadowing importance of his labors in the cause of the Revolution. In the multiplied transactions of a subordinate character which engaged the attention of