Independence (87 page)

43
. Becker,
Declaration of Independence
, 105–14. Becker also thought that TJ’s inclusion of “the pursuit of happiness” as a natural right had been derived from a essay published by James Wilson, though subsequent scholarship has shown that was not the case.

44
. Maier,
American Scripture
, 124–28;
Am Archives
4th series, 6:1537. Ironically, the Virginia Convention finally adopted the Declaration of Rights in a slightly modified form on June 12, the very day that the committee’s draft—which TJ utilized—appeared in the Philadelphia newspaper. See John E. Selby,
The Revolution in Virginia, 1775–1783
(Williamsburg, Va., 1988), 100–110.

45
. Jay Fliegelman,
Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority
(New York, 1982), 4; Eric Slauter, “The Declaration of Independence and the New Nation,” in Frank Shuffelton, ed.,
The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Jefferson
(Cambridge, 2009), 18; Peter S. Onuf, “A Declaration of Independence for Diplomatic Historians,” in Peter S. Onuf, ed.,
The Mind of Thomas Jefferson
(Charlottesville, Va., 2007), 66.

46
. Maier,
American Scripture
, 134.

47
. See also Herbert Lawrence Ganter, “Jefferson’s ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ and Some Forgotten Men,”
William and Mary Quarterly
, 2d series, 16 (1936): 422–34.

48
. George Anastaplo, “The Declaration of Independence,”
Saint Louis University Law Journal
9 (1964–65): 401.

49
. The term “war criminal” is appropriated from Garry Wills,
Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence
(Garden City, N.Y., 1978), 310. Wills wrote that TJ accused the king of “a war crime for his complicity in enslaving Africans.”

50
. On British attempts to restrict emigration, see Bernard Bailyn,
Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution
(New York, 1986), 29–66.

51
. For TJ’s draft, see “Jefferson’s ‘original Rough draught’ of the Declaration of Independence,”
PTJ
1:423–28.

52
. TJ, Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress, June 7–August 1, 1776,
PTJ
1:313–14.

53
. Joseph Hawley to Gerry, June 13, 1776,
Am Archives
4th series, 6:845; Warren to Gerry, June 12, 1776, ibid., 6:829. Warren thought “ninety-nine in a hundred would engage, with their lives and fortunes, to support Congress” should it declare independence. Pauline Maier,
American Scripture
, should be consulted on the foot dragging in Massachusetts, where the upper chamber of the assembly sought to delay or inhibit the break with Great Britain and the lower house did not finally vote for independence until July 3. However, as Maier points out, since January 1776 the Massachusetts congressional delegation had as much authority to concur with the other delegations on a decision for independence as the North Carolina and Delaware congressmen received many months later. See her section on Massachusetts on pages 59–61.

54
.
Am Archives
4th series, 6:867–68, 1029–30, 1628–29, 1491; Maier,
American Scripture
, 59–68; Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant to JA, June 15, 1776,
PJA
4:316. The “all independent souls” quotation can be found in Larry R. Gerlach,
Prologue to Independence: New Jersey in the Coming of the American Revolution
(New Brunswick, N.J., 1976), 337.

55
. Merrill Jensen,
The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776
(New York, 1968), 685–87; Maier,
American Scripture
, 65–66; William Hogeland,
Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1–July 4, 1776
(New York, 2010), 143–62; Richard Alan Ryerson,
The Revolution Is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765–1776
(Philadelphia, 1978), 208–37;
Am Archives
4th series, 6:755, 962–63; Joseph E. Illick,
Colonial Pennsylvania: A History
(New York, 1976), 301; JA to Warren, May 20, 1776,
PJA
4:195.

56
. Richard Lightfoot Lee to Richard H. Lee, June 30, 1776,
LDC
4:342–43; Bruce Bliven,
Under the Guns: New York, 1775–1776
(New York, 1972), 318; Barnet Schecter,
The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution
(New York, 2002), 100; John J. Gallagher,
The Battle of Brooklyn, 1776
(Edison, N.J., 2002), 67.

57
. JA to John Sullivan, June 23, 1776,
PJA
4:330; JA to Nathanael Greene, June 22, 1776, ibid., 4:324.

58
. JA to John Winthrop, June 23, 1776,
PJA
4:331–32; Hewes to James Iredell, June 28, 1776,
LDC
4:332; Rutledge to Jay, June 29, 1776, ibid., 4:337.

CHAPTER 13: “MAY HEAVEN PROSPER THE NEW BORN REPUBLIC”: SETTING AMERICA FREE

1
. JA to Archibald Bulloch, July 1, 1776,
PJA
4:352.

2
. JA to AA, April 15, 23, 28, 1776,
AFC
1:383, 391–92, 401.

3
. JA to AA, April 28, May 17, 1776,
AFC
1:401, 410.

4
. TJ to William Fleming, July 1, 1776,
PTJ
1:411–13.

5
. David Hawke,
A Transaction of Free Men: The Birth and Course of the Declaration of Free Men
(New York, 1964), 177.

6
. Josiah Bartlett to Nathaniel Folsom, July 1, 1776,
LDC
4:348; John Penn to Samuel Johnson, June 28, 1776, ibid., 4:333; Penn to [?], June 28, 1776, ibid., 4:334.

7
.
DAJA
2:115n; John Ferling,
Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and the American Revolution
(New York, 2000), xviii–xix.

8
.
JCC
5:503;
Am Archives
4th series, 6:1726–27; GW to Hancock, June 29, 1776,
PGWR
5:147–49.

9
.
JCC
5:503; Garry Wills,
Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence
(Garden City, N.Y., 1978), 4.

10
. Milton E. Flower,
John Dickinson: Conservative Revolutionary
(Charlottesville, Va., 1983), 153–57.

11
. JA to Zabdiel Adams, June 21, 1776,
AFC
2:20; JA to Chase, July 1, 1776,
PJA
4:353; Gerry to Warren, July 2, 1776,
LDC
4:370.

12
. For Dickinson’s speech, see John Dickinson’s Notes for a Speech in Congress, [July 1, 1776],
LDC
4:351–56, 356n.

13
. JA, Autobiography,
DAJA
3:395–97; TJ to Samuel Wells, May 12, 1819, Paul Leicester Ford, ed.,
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1892–99), 10:131; Thomas Jefferson, To the Editor of the
Journal de Paris
, August 29, 1787,
PTJ
12:63.

14
. JA to Chase, July 1, 1776,
PJA
4:354.

15
. The quotations can be found in John Hazleton,
The Declaration of Independence: Its History
(New York, 1906), 161–62; John Ferling,
John Adams: A Life
(reprint, New York, 2010), 169.

16
. Jefferson, To the Editor of the
Journal de Paris
, August 29, 1787,
PTJ
12:63.

17
. David Freeman Hawke,
Honorable Treason: The Declaration of Independence and the Men Who Signed It
(New York, 1976), 163.

18
. JA, Autobiography,
DAJA
3:379.

19
. Jefferson, Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress, [June 7–August 1, 1776],
PTJ
1:314.

20
. JA to Chase, July 1, 1776,
PJA
4:353.

21
.
JCC
5:506–7;
Am Archives
4th series, 6:1727–28.

22
. Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards,
1776: A Musical Play
(New York, 1964), 47.

23
. JA, Diary, September 3, 1774,
DAJA
2:121; Caesar Rodney to John Haslet[?], May 17, 1776, in George Herbert Ryden, ed.,
Letters to and from Caesar Rodney
, (reprint, New York, 1970), 80; Rodney to Thomas Rodney, May 8, 1776, ibid., 75; Rodney to Rodney, July 10, 1776,
LDC
4:433; Hawke,
Honorable Treason,
155–57. See also William Baskerville Hamilton,
Anglo-American Law on the Frontier: Thomas Rodney and His Territorial Cases
(Durham, N.C., 1953), which discusses the several accounts of Rodney’s activities on pages 21–22.

24
. John Munroe,
Colonial Delaware
(Millwood, N.Y., 1978), 249–50.

25
. Rodney to Rodney, July 4, 1776,
LDC
4:388; Thomas McKean to Caesar A. Rodney, September 22, 1813, ibid., 4:388n.

26
. Hawke,
Honorable Treason
, 106.

27
. Merrill Jensen,
The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776
(New York, 1968), 383–84, 655–56.

28
. JA, Autobiography,
DAJA
3:360.

29
. Jefferson, Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress, [June 7–August 1, 1776],
PTJ
1:314.

30
. Quoted in Hawke,
Transaction of Free Men
, 137.

31
. Flower,
John Dickinson
, 166.

32
. Morris to Joseph Reed, July 21, 1776,
LDC
4:510–11.

33
. Charles Page Smith,
James Wilson: Founding Father, 1742–1798
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1956), 78–84;
LDC
4:273–74n.

34
. Delegates’ Certification of James Wilson’s Conduct in Congress, June 20, 1776,
LDC
4:271–73.

35
. JA, Autobiography,
DAJA
3:350.

36
. JA, Diary, September 15, 1775,
DAJA
2:172; Braxton to Carter, April 14, 1776,
LDC
3:522–23. Unless otherwise noted, all the profiles of the members of Congress are drawn from Hawke,
Honorable Treason
.