New Hampshire, June 15th, voted in favor "of declaring the thirteen united colonies free and independent States, and solemnly pledged their faith and honor to support the measure with their lives and fortune."

New Jersey, by provincial convention, on the 21st of June, elected new delegates, and instructed them, "if you should judge it necessary or expedient for this purpose, we empower you to join with them in declaring the united colonies free of Great Britain," etc.

The assembly of Pennsylvania, on the 14th of June, adopted instructions to her delegates in Congress who had been elected by the assembly which might be called non-committal. They were authorized to concur with other delegates "in forming such other compacts between the united colonies, concluding such treaties between foreign kingdoms and the States, and in adopting such other measures as upon a view of all the circumstances shall be judged necessary for promoting the liberty, safety and interest of America," etc. Very different was the language of the provincial conference which met at Philadelphia on the 24th of June. In their declaration they charged King George the Third with violating the principles of the British constitution, and with various wrongs and grievances against the people of America, arbitrary and unjust in character, with which Parliament had concurred, and, said these delegates, we “ do, in this public manner, in behalf of ourselves, and with the approbation, authority and consent of our constituents, unanimously declare our willingness to concur in a vote of the Congress declaring the united colonies free and independent States."

Delaware, on the 14th of June, the same day upon which the Pennsylvania assembly instructed her delegates in a feeble way to concur in forming compacts between the colonies and making treaties with foreign kingdoms, spoke nearly in the same language.

As far as any assent to a declaration of independence was concerned, it therefore appeared that at the beginning of July only five StatesNorth Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the latter by her conference speaking in opposition to her assembly-had given anything like assent to the extreme measure. On the 28th of June, Jefferson's committee reported the draft of a declaration of independence. It was read and laid on the table. On the 1st of July, according to the original resolution of postponement, Congress took up Richard Henry Lee's resolution of independence in committee of the whole. The motion in committee of the whole to agree to the resolution and report it to the Congress for final action was agreed to by the following vote: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia voted for the motion; Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against it; Delaware did not vote because its two delegates present were equally divided; New York did not vote because the subject of independence was outside of their instructions. The resolution was thus, by the votes of nine colonies in committee of the whole, reported to the

Congress for final action. When the vote was about to be taken in Congress, Rutledge of South Carolina asked to have it postponed until the folthat time his colleagues from that colony might be ready to vote for the resolution. The vote was then postponed. In the mean time, between the vote in the committee of the whole, July 1st, and the meeting of Congress, July 2d, the circumstances which prevented unanimity in committee were entirely changed.

Of the nine delegates appointed by Pennsylvania seven only were present on July 1st in committee of the whole. Edward Biddle was sick, and Andrew Allen had joined, or was about to join, the British. Of the remaining delegates, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, Charles Humphreys and Thomas Willing voted against the motion to report Lee's resolution. Benjamin Franklin, John Morton and James Wilson voted for it. The vote of Pennsylvania was thus lost by a majority of one. South Carolina voted unanimously against it. Delaware, as mentioned, gave no vote, McKean being for the resolution and Read against it, Rodney being absent. On the 2d of July there was a change. Rodney was brought up from Delaware and voted aye, and that State was recorded in favor of the resolution of independence. South Carolina changed her vote and went for the resolution unanimously. Pennsylvania was carried for the resolution, not by a majority of her delegates, but by a majority of those who were present. John Dickinson and Robert Morris did not take their seats on the 2d of July. This left a representation of five members. Three of them-Franklin, Morton and Wilson-voted for the resolution; Humphreys and Willing voted against it, and thus by one-third of her whole delegation Pennsylvania's vote was recorded in favor of the resolution.

Thus, on the 2d of July, 1776, the resolution declaring the United Colonies to be "free and independent States" was adopted by the unanimous vote of twelve colonies, New York still declining to vote. What the ideas of the members were as to the validity of the vote if there had been a mere majority-say seven States-is not now known. Evidently they hoped for the assent of the whole thirteen States. But they had nine States in the committee of the whole on the 1st day of July, and eleven clearly on the 2d, and twelve States, with Pennsylvania's doubtful vote, carried by a minority.

After the adoption of Lee's resolution on the 2d, the form of the declaration was debated on the 3d and 4th, and after amendment was finally adopted on the latter day. The vote was the same as on the 2d, twelve colonies in favor, New York not voting. Pennsylvania was carried exactly as she was on the 2d, three to two, Morris, Dickinson, Biddle and Allen absent. The State of New York afterward, on the 9th of July, at White Plains, in convention, resolved that the resolution and declaration of independence be approved, and her delegates in Congress be empowered to adopt and concert all necessary measures, etc., connected with the same. It was for this reason that when the declaration was first published in Dunlap's Packet of July 6th it was styled "a declaration by the representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled." On the 19th of July, four days after the New York resolutions were presented to Con

gress, it was resolved that the declaration passed on the 4th be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and style of "the unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America," and the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.

An important error has been sanctioned in regard to this instrument for nearly a hundred years by the manner in which the journals of Congress have been printed. Aitkins & Dunlap's edition of the journals of Congress, printed in 1778, in the minute for the 4th of July, says, "The declaration being read, it was agreed to as follows." To this succeeds the text of the declaration and the signatures of fifty-five representatives, the name of Thomas McKean of Delaware, who undoubtedly signed, and who makes the fifty-sixth signer, being omitted altogether. The signatures to this copy of the declaration are not, and could not have been, those placed to it on the 4th of July, 1776, if any declaration was signed on that day, because eight of them are of persons who were not members of Congress at that time. It is the engrossed copy of August 2d, and the signatures attached to it up to or after November 4th, which are published in Dunlap's journals as those of the original signers on the 4th of July. This error or interpolation has had much to do with subsequent confusion among historical writers in regard to the point. If, as Jefferson said, the declaration was signed by every member present on the 4th of July, it is strange that the names were not published with the contemporary copy of the document. No other names appear to the official copies sent out by Congress, or published in newspapers by authority of that body, except John Hancock, president, and Charles Thomson, sec

retary.

The following analysis of the votes in Congress upon Lee's resolution and the declaration, and statement as to the respective views of the members at that time and subsequently, will be of interest.

Members of CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. New Hampshire, appointed February 29, 1776, William H. Whipple, John Langdon, Josiah

Bartlett.

Massachusetts, February 9, 1776, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

Connecticut, January 16, 1776, Roger Sherman, Oliver Wolcott, Samuel Huntingdon, Titus Hosmer, William Williams.

New York, May 11, 1776, Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, William Floyd, Lewis Morris, John Jay, Henry Wisner, Philip Schuyler, George Clinton, Francis Lewis, Robert R. Livingston, Jr.

New Jersey, June 28, 1776, Richard Stockton, Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Dr. John Witherspoon.

Pennsylvania, November 3, 1775, John Morton, John Dickinson, Robert Morris, Benjamin Frankfin, Charles Humphreys, Edward Biddle, Thomas Willing, Andrew Allen and James Wilson.

Lower Counties on the Delaware, May 11, 1775, Cæsar Rodney, Thomas McKean and George Read.

Maryland, September 13, 1775, Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, Jr., Robert Goldsborough, William Paca, Thomas Stone and John Hall. Virginia, September 13, 1775, Richard Henry

Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, George Wythe, Francis Lightfoot Lee; February 23, 1776, Carter Braxton.

The legislature of Virginia had made a new election on the 30th of June, but the certificates were not presented until the 28th of August. North Carolina, May 11, 1775, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes; October 13th, John Penn.

South Carolina, April 24, 1776, Thomas Lynch, John Rutledge, Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr. Georgia, May 20, 1776, Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnett, Archibald Bullock, John Houston, George Walton.

Rhode Island, May 14, 1776, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery."

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776, WHO
DID NOT SIGN THE DECLARATION.
New Hampshire, John Langdon.
Connecticut, Titus Hosmer.

New York, James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Henry Wisner, George Clinton, Robert R. Livingston, Jr., Philip Schuyler.

Pennsylvania, John Dickinson, Charles Humphreys, Edward Biddle, Thomas Willing, Andrew

Allen.

Maryland, Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, Jr., Robert Goldsborough, John Hall. South Carolina, John Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Sr.

Some of these may be accounted for: Langdoi. of New Hampshire was appointed prize agent of that colony on the 25th of June, and was probably not again present in Congress. Hosmer of Connecticut was an alternate, and was not entitled to vote if the principal were present. The New York sider that they had a right to vote. delegates, under their instructions, did not conBiddle of Pennsylvania was sick; Dickinson, Humphreys and Willing were opposed to independence. Allen had become alarmed at the progress of affairs, was opposed to independence, and in December, 1776, put himself under the protection of General Howe. Goldsborough and Hall of Maryland were superseded on the 18th of July, and had no opportunity to sign the declaration on the 2d of August. Why Tilghman and Johnson were re-elected. they did not sign the declaration is not known. Thomas Lynch, Sr., of South Carolina, was sick. John Rutledge of the same State was at home as a member of the State convention to prepare a constitution for the State. Archibald Bullock of

Georgia was acting as president of that colony, and was not at Philadelphia.

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO VOTED AGAINST

THE RESOLUTION AND DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AND AFTERWARD SIGNED THE DECLARATION.

Pennsylvania, Robert Morris.

Lower Counties on the Delaware, George Read.

SIGNERS OF DECLARATION WHO WEre not Mem

BERS OF CONGRESS WHEN IT WAS ADOPTED. New Hampshire, Matthew Thornton, admitted November 4, 1776.

Pennsylvania, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Col. George Ross, George Clymer, Col. James Smith, George Taylor, admitted July 20, 1776.

Maryland, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Samuel Chase, returned July 18, 1776.

MERCURY () will be at its greatest distance east of the sun, Jan. 28, May 4 and September 17, when it may be looked for about the time of sunset. Its greatest western elongation is March 10, July 8 and October 28, and it may be seen before sunrise.

Venus (9) will be evening star until its conjunction with the sun on the 14th of July. It then passes to the west of the sun and becomes morning star, and so continues throughout the year. It is most brilliant on the 7th of June in the evening, and on the 20th of August in the morning.

Mars () will be visible in the evening until August. It will be twice in conjunction with Venus, and on the 29th of March Venus will approach within about 1° north of Mars.

Jupiter () will be visible only in the morning until the 8th of March, when it will rise at midnight. By the 26th of June it will be on the

I54 5.9

2.54 P.M. Oh O.

0.43 A.M. h rises. 11.46 P.M. AntaresS. 9.14 P.M. Procy, sets.

meridian at 9 o'clock in the evening, and continue visible in the evening for two or three months.

Saturn (h) can be seen in the evening just after sunset until Feb. 17, when it passes west of the sun and is not again visible, except in the morning, until the middle of July, when it rises at 9 o'clock in the evening. On the evening of Jan. 16 Venus and Saturn set together at 7.20 P.M., being within o of each other at that time.

In this country we know of no paper which more thoroughly reflects its constituency than the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, as well in tone and character as in its quiet mode of expressing its views. Philadelphia is largely influenced by its Quaker origin, and every organ of society is subject to that influente more or less. The evidences of methodical habit and quietness are to be seen and felt everywhere, notwithstanding temporary enthusiasms and ebullitions to the contrary. The advertising columns of the Ledger are a wonderful epitome of the people's daily life and needs, comprising twenty-five or twenty-six of the entire thirty-two columns of the paper, making us wonder how so much news is crowded into the remainder and our mouths water at the receipts.-Chronicle, Washington, D. C.

The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Jefferson, and examined and slightly amended by Franklin and Adams. It was written by Jefferson in the first room of the second story of the house of Jacob Graff, south-west corner of 7th and Market streets, which is still standing. Jefferson was a boarder in that house, and in that chamber, according to his own statement made in a letter to Dr. James Mease, September 16, 1825, the Declaration of Independence was written.

Congress adopted the declaration in secret session. It was already known on the 4th that Lee's resolution, which was the vital act in the opposition to Great Britain, had been adopted on the 2d. The declaration was merely an assignment of reasons for the passage of the resolution, a vindication of an act already done. There was, therefore, no excitement in Philadelphia at the time the declaration was adopted. In fact, the character of the declaration was not known until two days afterward, when it made its appearance in Dunlap's paper. On the 5th of July Congress sent out circular letters to all the assemblies, conventions and councils of safety of the various States, asking that the Declaration of Independence should be proclaimed. Such proclamations generally followed. In Philadelphia the declaration was first read to the people on Monday, the 8th of July, by John Nixon, in the State-house yard, from an observatory erected there by the American Philosophical Society in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus over the sun. Nixon was a member of the council of safety, and read the declaration instead of the sheriff of the county, who was originally requested to perform that service. In the afternoon the declaration was read to the five battalions of associators on the commons. The king's arms over the door of the supreme courtroom in the State-house were torn down by a committee of associators appointed for the purpose. In the evening they were burned amidst the acclamations of a large crowd of spectators. Bonfires were lighted, bells were rung, and the most notable of all the peals which sounded over the city was that of the old State-house bell, which had been cast twenty-four years before, bearing upon its side the prophetic and remarkable motto, Proclaim liberty throughout the land, to all the

inhabitants thereof."

ELECTIONS IN 1876.

IN 1876 general elections will be held in the city of Philadelphia as follows:

For city and ward officers, on Tuesday, February 15. To be elected: Members of councils, assessors, election officers, school directors, etc.

Last day for payment of taxes, January 15, 1876. Last day for naturalization, January 15th. For county and State officers, on Tuesday. November 7th. To be elected: Electors of President and Vice-President of United States, members of Congress, a sheriff, county treasurer and register of wills; senators for even-numbered districts to serve two years, senators for odd-numbered districts to serve four years, assemblymen to serve two years.

Last days for extra assessment, 6th and 7th of September.

Last day for payment of taxes, October 7th.
Last day for naturalization, October 7th.

QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS.

VOTING ON AGE.-Every male citizen between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-two years may vote without being assessed. He must previously have resided in the State one year, and in the election district (or division) where he offers to

vote for at least two months before the election. If his name is not on the registry of voters, he must make affidavit, if a native citizen, as to his birthplace and residence in the district for two months, and in the State for one year, except in case he had been a resident and removed therefrom and again returned, when six months' residence will be sufficient. If the claimant is not native born, but the son of a citizen naturalized before the son was twenty-one years of age, he must also produce proof of his father's naturalization, of which the naturalization certificate will be the best evidence.

A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN over twenty-two years of age must have paid within two years a State or county tax, which shall have been assessed at least two months and paid one month before the election. He must have resided in the State one year, or if having previously been a qualified elector or native-born citizen of the State, he shall have removed therefrom and returned, then six months immediately preceding the election. He must have resided in the election disimmediately preceding the election. If his name is not upon the registry list, he must produce at least one qualified voter of the district or division to prove his residence by affidavit, and himself make affidavit to the facts upon which he claims a right to vote, also that he has not moved into the district for the purpose of voting therein. Proof of payment of taxes must be made by producing the tax receipt, or by making affidavit that it has been lost, destroyed or that he never received any.

trict where he offers to vote at least two months

A NATURALIZED CITIZEN must have the same qualifications as to residence in the State and district assessment and payment of taxes as a native-born citizen. He must have been naturalized one month

On

before the election. If his name is not on the registry list, he must prove his residence by the testimony of a citizen of the district or division, and himself state by affidavit when and where and by what court he was naturalized, and produce his naturalization certificate for examination. challenge, a naturalized citizen may be also required, even when his name is upon the registry list, to produce a naturalization certificate, unless he has been for five years consecutively a voter in the district.

THE Public Ledger announces that the pressure upon its advertising columns is so great that it must henceforth issue supplements on Wednesdays as well as Saturdays. Nearly 2000 advertisements were offered for its last Saturday's edition, being the largest number ever presented to any Philadelphia journal in one day. Its daily circulation is now over 92,000, and before the Centennial year it will score above 100,000. To all newspapers which depend upon their own merits for success the prosperity of a well-conducted journal like the Ledger is not only gratifying, but the surest promise of their own growing power and reward-The (Daily) Times, Philadelphia, April 13, 1875.