Notes from my Knapsack 6-25-2026
Jeff Gill
Two centuries and a half this June, in Philadelphia
___
Before the Declaration of Independence could be written and amended and approved, there had to be a motion.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia would make it, friend of Patrick Henry and Sam Adams, on June 7, 1776. Before the Continental Congress he moved "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
Yes, this man’s cousin “Light-horse Harry” Lee would be the father of Robert E. Lee. Irony is a primary element in our history; get used to it.
On June 11, the Continental Congress appointed a "Committee of Five" consisting of John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson, neatly balanced between north and south with Virginia the pivot point in between. Technically, these five men drafted the Declaration of Independence, but as we know Jefferson drafted it, while Adams and Franklin made some changes to it. Our nascent Congress did not reconvene until July 1, 1776.
They approved Lee’s resolution as presented on July 2 (12 votes aye, New York abstaining, long story), which is the source of John Adams’s famous letter of that date to Abigail, his wife, saying “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
Yet Congress, as is their wont, fiddled and diddled and modified odd phrases and moved around punctuation for three days. It was not until the Fourth of July that they officially adopted the Declaration of Independence we know now, and sent it to the printer’s office. The National Archives tell us the final form was “engrossed on parchment” only on July 19, 1776, and signed actually in the first days of August. Ask Nicolas Cage when the map was drawn on the back in lemon juice…
The true point, the serious observation, is this: they spent weeks getting it right. It was not one man, flawed or inspired as you might hope or believe; this was not a quick impulse out of mass emotion at work quickly rushed into print. Years of struggle were distilled into weeks of deliberation and crafting, in words and phrases with centuries of precedent behind them, in part going back to the Magna Carta itself in 1215. References to nature, and nature’s god, to a creator, and to how rights are self-evident, all had the weight of history behind them. It was not just the eruption of passions, but the end result of well-developed considerations, that ended up on that page now enshrined at the National Archives.
We, the people, had representation and deliberation working on our behalf in Philadelphia that long ago summer. We may still be thinking about how those ideas actually work in practice, but what we celebrate this year is the enduring legacy of the intention and action behind those words in 1776, continuing today “with liberty and justice for all.”
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s moved by what they did at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in 1776 and in 1787. Tell him your America 250 thought at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on X.
Jeff Gill
Two centuries and a half this June, in Philadelphia
___
Before the Declaration of Independence could be written and amended and approved, there had to be a motion.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia would make it, friend of Patrick Henry and Sam Adams, on June 7, 1776. Before the Continental Congress he moved "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
Yes, this man’s cousin “Light-horse Harry” Lee would be the father of Robert E. Lee. Irony is a primary element in our history; get used to it.
On June 11, the Continental Congress appointed a "Committee of Five" consisting of John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson, neatly balanced between north and south with Virginia the pivot point in between. Technically, these five men drafted the Declaration of Independence, but as we know Jefferson drafted it, while Adams and Franklin made some changes to it. Our nascent Congress did not reconvene until July 1, 1776.
They approved Lee’s resolution as presented on July 2 (12 votes aye, New York abstaining, long story), which is the source of John Adams’s famous letter of that date to Abigail, his wife, saying “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
Yet Congress, as is their wont, fiddled and diddled and modified odd phrases and moved around punctuation for three days. It was not until the Fourth of July that they officially adopted the Declaration of Independence we know now, and sent it to the printer’s office. The National Archives tell us the final form was “engrossed on parchment” only on July 19, 1776, and signed actually in the first days of August. Ask Nicolas Cage when the map was drawn on the back in lemon juice…
The true point, the serious observation, is this: they spent weeks getting it right. It was not one man, flawed or inspired as you might hope or believe; this was not a quick impulse out of mass emotion at work quickly rushed into print. Years of struggle were distilled into weeks of deliberation and crafting, in words and phrases with centuries of precedent behind them, in part going back to the Magna Carta itself in 1215. References to nature, and nature’s god, to a creator, and to how rights are self-evident, all had the weight of history behind them. It was not just the eruption of passions, but the end result of well-developed considerations, that ended up on that page now enshrined at the National Archives.
We, the people, had representation and deliberation working on our behalf in Philadelphia that long ago summer. We may still be thinking about how those ideas actually work in practice, but what we celebrate this year is the enduring legacy of the intention and action behind those words in 1776, continuing today “with liberty and justice for all.”
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he’s moved by what they did at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, in 1776 and in 1787. Tell him your America 250 thought at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on X.
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