Posted on 08/02/2025 5:20:27 AM PDT by DFG
August 2, 1776, is one of the most important but least celebrated days in American history when 56 members of the Second Continental Congress started signing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
Officially, the Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, when it approved a resolution in a unanimous vote.
After voting on independence on July 2, the group needed to draft a document explaining the move to the public. It had been proposed in draft form by the Committee of Five (John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson) and it took two days for the Congress to agree on the edits. Thomas Jefferson was the main author.
Once the Congress approved the actual Declaration of Independence document on July 4, it was sent to a printer named John Dunlap. About 200 copies of the Dunlap Broadside were printed, with John Hancock’s name printed at the bottom. Today, 26 copies remain. Then on July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon of Philadelphia read a printed Declaration of Independence to the public for the first time on what is now called Independence Square.
Many members of the Continental Congress started to sign an engrossed version of the Declaration on August 2, 1776, in Philadelphia. John Hancock’s famous signature was in the middle, because of his status as President of the Congress. The other delegates signed by state delegation, starting in the upper right column, and then proceeding in five columns, arranged from the northernmost state (New Hampshire) to the southernmost (Georgia).
Historian Herbert Friedenwald explained in his 1904 study of the Second Continental Congress that the signers on August 2 weren’t necessarily the same delegates at the Congress in early July when the Declaration was proposed and approved.
“Attempting now to determine the names of some of those who were present on the day officially appointed for signing the engrossed document (August 2), we reach the conclusion that a far greater number than has generally been supposed were not in Philadelphia on that day either,” said Friedenwald, who determined discrepancies between the delegates perceived to sign the document on July 4 and the actual delegates who started signing the Declaration on August 2.
Friedenwald said there were 49 delegates in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, but only 45 would have been able to sign the document on that day. Seven delegates were absent. New York’s eight-person delegation didn’t vote at the time, while it awaited instructions from home, so it could never have signed a document on July 4, he said.
Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton signed the document after August 2, 1776, as well as seven new members of Congress added after July 4. Seven other members of the July 4 meeting never signed the document, Friedenwald said.
However, the signers’ names weren’t released publicly until early 1777, when Congress allowed the printing of an official copy with the names attached. On January 18, 1777 printer Mary Katherine Goddard’s version printed in Baltimore indicated the delegates “desired to have the same put on record,” and there was a signature from John Hancock authenticating the printing.
Declaration of Independence Timeline
June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee of VA puts forth the resolution for independence.
June 10, 1776 Consideration of the resolution is postponed till July 1 (so moderates could build a coalition)
June 11, 1776 Revolutionaries persuade Congress to appoint a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee consisted of John Adams (MA), Benjamin Franklin (PA), Thomas Jefferson (VA), Roger Sherman (CT), and Robert R. Livingston (NY). Jefferson takes the lead on the project. Adams and Franklin make a few edits. Jefferson’s rough draft is in the Library of Congress.
July 1, 1776 Vote on the resolution for independence. Nine colonies vote for it, 2 against it (PA and SC), 1 abstained (NY), and one was deadlocked (DE). Vote to be retaken the next day.
July 2, 1776 12 of the 13 colonies vote for the resolution, with NY abstaining. Congress declares the resolution to be in effect.
July 2-4, 1776 Congress debates the content of the Declaration of Independence.
July 4, 1776 Congress approves the Declaration of Independence and orders it printed. Philadelphia printer John Dunlap prints about 200 copies. Fewer than 30 survive today.
July 6, 1777 The Declaration of Independence appears in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, the first newspaper printing of the newly adopted document.
July 8, 1776 Colonel John Nixon reads the Declaration of Independence to a crowd on the State House Yard (now known as Independence Square). This is the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
July 19, 1776 Congress orders the Declaration engrossed for signatures. Title is changed from “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress Assembled” to “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America.”
August 2, 1776 Declaration signed by (most likely) 50 of the 56 signers. Five more sign later in 1776. Thomas McKean, the 56th signer, signs sometime after January 1777. There is only one handwritten, signed Declaration of Independence. It is on display in the National Archives in Washington D.C.
January 18, 1777 Congress authorizes the printing of the Declaration with the names of the signers (first time names of signers are printed.
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July 2, 1775 the Continental Congress sent “The Olive Branch”, a conciliatory public letter to George III because they felt his advisors were not communicating their messages to him. They hoped a public letter would reach him. Reportedly he never read it. A mistake, if true.
Jefferson suffered through Congress remaking his work. His draft at 1704 words was 366 words longer than the final. The Congress added 253 words, and removed or rephrased 792 words, thereby transforming over 60% of his work. Among passages removed was a 168 word section complaining the mercantile system, imposed on the colonies by commercial charter, mandated the importation of slaves to the New World. His draft is on the internet. One congressman lamented with him that it was like seeing the goose after Christmas dinner.
I had heard they wouldn’t let Franklin write it because they were afraid he would put a joke in it.
The Declaration of Independence: Benjamon Franklin
Https://www.thirteen.org/programs/benjamin-franklin/declaration-independence-ev7upl/
Franklin offered only a few edits, but one of them was pivotal. In his draft Jefferson’s most important sentence began, “ We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal….”Franklin crossed out ‘sacred and undeniable’ and wrote in ‘self-evident’”
Back then it took a long time to sign anything...it still does... 😀
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