WILLIAM WHIPPLE & THE MOST DISTINGUISHED EVENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
New Hampshire elected William Whipple to the Continental Congress four times with his first election 23 January 1776 and he served the state longer than any of its other 17 delegates. He arrived in Philadelphia Feb. 28, after a trip by horseback and took lodgings with John Adams on Second Street. Mrs. Sarah Yates was their landlady.
On April 12, North Carolina became the first colony to speak for independence in unmistakable tones. Its Provincial Congress gave its delegates power to declare independence and form foreign alliances
Congress made many momentous decisions in early May. It authorized issuance of $5 million in paper money on the 9th and John Adam’s resolution advising the colonies to suppress Crown authority and to assume power under the authority of the people passed on the 15th. George Washington was summoned on the 16th to plan for the coming campaign and conferred with the entire Congress on the 24th and 25th. A Committee, including Whipple, was appointed to plan the military operations. Josiah Bartlett the state’s other delegate arrived the evening of the 17th to share in the heavy work load. On the 28th, Whipple and Bartlett wrote Meschech Weare, head of the Provincial Congress asking “for the sentiments of our colony on the important subject of a total separation from Great Britain.”
Whipple wrote John Langdon of Portsmouth in early June that a vote on independence was approaching and he believed it would pass. Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate, introduced the resolution for independence Friday June 7. “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. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures by forming foreign alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies for their consideration and approbation.” John Adams seconded.
On June 10 opponents won postponement of the vote after agreeing a Declaration should be drafted and ready for the July 1 debate. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston were named to the drafting committee June 11. On the 12th, a member from each colony was named to a committee to prepare a form of Confederation and John Dickinson, John Adams, Benjamin Harrison, and Robert Morris were named to a committee to develop a plan of treaties to be proposed to foreign powers.
Independence meant a war and so a majority was unacceptable; unanimity was required. Congress convened as a committee of the whole about noon July 1. President John Hancock vacated the chair so that the debate and vote were unofficial. This “trial balloon” was a traditional and highly useful device to get the sense of a legislative body before official and irretrievable action was taken.
Dickinson of Pennsylvania led the opposition, arguing more time was needed to reach a reconciliation and to prepare for a contest with such a powerful foe. Opponents believed a yes vote would cause the colonial union to dissolve while Whipple, Bartlett, and others believed a no vote would result in dissolution. Lee was in Virginia so John Adams carried the resolution. No notes on his speech survive, yet for the remainder of his life, it was referred to in terms of wonder and praise. “He came out with a power of thought and expression that moved us from out seats,” Jefferson said years after. The vote was 9-4 for independence. Bartlett and Whipple are believed to have cast the first and second votes for the declaration as the normal order of voting began with the northern colony.
New York refused to vote “for want of instructions from home.” Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted nay. Delaware’s two deputies were divided. Congress adjourned until l 9 a.m. July 2 when the final vote would be taken “in full congress assembled.” The large majority was a powerful inducement to the four dissenters and 12 states voted for independence. Henry Wisner promised New York would not stand alone; it voted approval in a Convention July 9.
The draft committee had given the job of writing the Declaration to Jefferson and Congress spent most of July 2, 3, and 4 reviewing the draft sentence by sentence making 86 changes and deleting 480 words. It put into words, even more effectively than Thomas Paine did in his 47-page pamphlet, Common Sense, issued in January and distributed throughout the colonies “that all men are created equal;” that Americans were entitled to “a separate and equal station” among the nations of the earth.” The words, in the form of a sacred creed, have an elemental eloquence that has been moving men ever since.
The Unites States celebrates the Fourth of July when the Declaration was adopted by Congress rather than July 2 when Lee’s resolution for Independence was passed. However, delegates considered the Declaration a mere application of the July 2 unanimous decision which made independence a fact.
The New Hampshire Provisional Congress instructed Whipple and Bartlett on June 18 to support independence. On the 24th, Whipple wrote that “the middle colonies are getting in a good way. Next Monday, being the first of July, the grand question is to be debated, and I believe determined unanimously. May God unite our hearts in all things that tend to the well-being of the rising empire.” After the Declaration was adopted, he wrote, “This Declaration has had a glorious effect. It has made the colonies all alive.” On July 9, Whipple and Bartlett sent Weare a copy saying they “were so happy to agree in sentiment with our constituents, it gave us the greater pleasure . . . to vote for the enclosed Declaration.”
The Declaration was first proclaimed before a great crowd at noon Monday July 8 in Philadelphia’s state house yard. Colonel Nixon of the Philadelphia Associators read it from atop a round scaffold about 20 feet high. Troops saluted, the people gave three great huzzahs. Whipple, Bartlett, and 47 other members of Congress standing just below the platform cheered, then went back to work.
Post riders carried it to every corner of the now 13 sovereign and independent states. Townspeople gathered and cheered as the Declaration was read. Spontaneous celebrations of gunfire, bells, bonfires, pomp, and parades were held. The lion and the unicorn would no longer prance in these United States. The King’s Coat-of-Arms were ripped from courthouse doors. His portrait was turned to the wall. The halfpenny with its royal face was reduced to a farthing. A hundred King Streets were renamed State Street; Queen Street became Congress Way. Meschech Weare, head of the New Hampshire government, sent a letter to John Hancock July 16, voicing the fervent desire “That He who puteth down potentates and setteth up states may guard and protect the Unites States of America.”
The delegates felt the amended copy was not suitable for formal signatures so on July 19, Congress ordered it engrossed on parchment as “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America.” Most members signed August 2 and that evening feasted on sea food from a captured enemy ship destined for Lord North’s table in London.
Although celebrated as champions of liberty, approximately one-fourth of the signers didn’t vote for the declaration. Only three of Pennsylvania’s nine signers voted for it; three who were present didn’t sign; five were not members when it was adopted. Oliver Wolcott, Connecticut; Philip Livingston and Lewis Morris, New York; R.H. Lee and George Wythe, Virginia; William Hooper, North Carolina; Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll, Maryland; and possible others were absent on July 2. Livingstone of the drafting committee, believing its adoption inexpedient, left Congress when New York adopted it and never signed. Matthew Thornton, New Hampshire’s third signer, was not a member when it passed. He attended Congress from November 4, 1776 to May 2, 1777 and signed it sometime in November.
Abraham Clark of New Jersey expressed the opinion of many members that the Declaration was an act of treason and if the colonies failed to achieve independence, those who signed stood a good chance to suffer the penalty of traitors. Consequently, Congress decided not to release the names until Jan. 18, 1777 when it ordered an authenticated copy with names printed and sent to each state. President John Hancock’s Jan. 31, letter said: “As there is not a more distinguished event in the history of America than the declaration of her independence – nor any that in all probability, will so much excite the attention of future ages – it is highly proper, that the memory of that transaction, together with the causes that gave rise to it, should be preserved in the most careful manner than can be devised . . . that it may henceforth form a part of the archives of your state and remain a lasting testimony of your approbation of that necessary and important measure.”
