,. We are in a building that is built in the 17 thirties, about 40 years before theres any such thing as the United States of america. At that time pennsylvania was a british colony. This was its Capital Building. They would make laws for pennsylvania and each of the 13 colonies has its own government. These are the issues in a lot of ways that will lead to the creation of the United States, most of which will happen in this room, because the colonies, as time goes forward will start to grow dissatisfied with the way the British Government is treating them, is affecting their lives locally. One of the other side issues is americans living in the colonies do not get to vote in british elections. When the parliament in london makes laws for americans, the most famous being various taxes you learned about in school, we will say this is taxation without representation. It is that idea you are not getting the voice. Thomas jefferson would write that government existing with the consent of the governed and americans feel like they are not getting that consent. When it starts disappearing locally as well as connected with the home country in london and britain that they are really going to get this growing dissatisfaction. This room is long in use by pennsylvania but by 1775, pennsylvania will be inviting the Continental Congress into their state. The Continental Congress had met in philadelphia about one year earlier although they chose not to meet in Independence Hall. They met at carpenters hall. The first set of meetings is sort of the first sit down of these different colonies and it is this idea of expressing to the British Government what would be under british constitution and bill of rights at that time this notion of redressing grievances we would have as british subjects and they will write to the king. We are loyal british subjects and america, but these things are happening, we have these grievances over loss of rights, loss of connection with the government. The fact they are taking away some of our local government, closing down our local courts, giving us rules to follow that we have no say. They write this letter to the king, within your rights under british law. They agree as a group on an association that these 13 colonies will Work Together on these big issues. What is going to happen is they go home after that set of meetings in the fall of 1774. Communicating across the ocean in the late 1700s will take a while. They will not come back to philadelphia until the spring of 1775. Things have changed in those few months. In the area of boston, you will have the battle of lexington and concord in april. When congress is coming back to philadelphia, this is the news. They are finding out about some of the conflict that has begun. Things being a lot more serious leads to more serious circumstances when Congress Starts to meet in this room intimate. The first big thing they will tackle is this notion of working as a group but the idea of maybe fighting for those rights, taking that militia around boston and making it an american army, the continental army. In june of 1775, one of the first big steps will be taken as far as changing the world is going to be creating this continental army, this american army, 13 separate colonies that had run their lives independently and for years had not resisted together but it never worked out that they wanted to Work Together at the same time. They create this army, june 14, 1775, taking the beginnings of the army up in boston, making it the american army, and taking George Washington to be the commander of that army. That is one of the most branch petition. Like they had done before, it starts off with the idea that we are loyal british subjects fighting for our rights, following this chain of command in britain to the king that asks that he assist us in redressing these grievances. The other thing they will write is the declaration of the causes and necessities of taking up arms. These things will be written in july. It is putting out there to the world exactly what we are looking to do, to correct this situation we feel has gone against us and our rights are being threatened or taken away. Unfortunately, the British Government in london will decide they will not communicate with the Continental Congress. The king himself will announce there is this rebellion in america, and the British Government will essentially issue this letter to americans saying if you will be involved in this rebellion, we will view you as a traitor. At the crime of treason as serious then as it is now that could lead to a death penalty. By early 1776, that news arrived in philadelphia. It is getting very clear that negotiating, talking is not solving anything. You do have this very radical bent of men in this room that are pushing more toward this idea of independence and finally you get the last big push, Thomas Paynes book common sense, selling tens of thousands of copies to the colonies and his simple argument is we do not need those guys in london. We are better off on our own. We could run america better than the british ever could. This idea of independence swells through that spring. By june, virginia introduces a resolution for american independence. They decide to not address it right away in june. They are going to want to consult their home governments, their home colonies or states, because we are getting to that point. At the same time, they want to put something on paper. While they are each consulting home, they will form this fiveman committee, john adams, who is probably one of the most significant guys in congress those early days. He is pushing for the creation of the army in 1775, the navy in the fall of 1775. He is pushing in the spring of 1776 that each of the colonies write its own constitution, another step towards independence each colony getting rid of that old charter from the British Government, creating a new, independent constitution. He is one of the leaders in this movement. Also on the committee is a man named Robert Livingston of new york who goes back 10 years to meetings held over the stamp taxes. You have a man from connecticut named Roger Sherman who ends up signing the declaration of independence, the United States constitution, but the articles. Benjamin franklin from here in philadelphia, who is far and away the most famous american at the time, at 70 years old, oldest man in congress, and one of the younger guys in congress, Thomas Jefferson, 33yearold, that growing reputation for his writing. The committee deciding what they should say decides jefferson should be the writer. He works for 17 days on the declaration of independence, and he will especially go to john adams and Benjamin Franklin for some of their ideas and critiques of his writing. It is generally his work. He is building on a lot of other things both he and others have written. Aaah back here in the assembly room. That is a friday. They will wait to the next monday to start debating. July 1 begins debate on independence. The first thing they will debate is not the declaration but the idea. They will start discussing is this the best thing for us to do . Should we become these free and independent states . Most men in the room are at that point where they are ready to make this step. There are others, they are not loyal. They are not going to have loyalists in the Continental Congress. There are men who are more conservative who say this might not be such a good idea. John dickinson is one of the most important. He was the author of the letters of the pennsylvania farmer, which is against various taxes. He is one of our bestknown political writers of the day. He is pulling back, the idea of how we are going to win a war against the british. This does not seem like the best idea in the world to declare independence. This completely cuts off any chance of negotiating with the british. Others might look at the idea that we do not have anyone helping us. It britain is one of the great powers of the world. America, 3 Million People and there are a chunk of them remaining loyal to the crown. There will be battles in this war with americans on the others. Some saying we should slow down but most men are ready to move forward. On july 1, they will hold a nonbinding committee vote. The vote is on the question of being free and independent states. Here is how voting works at the Continental Congress. You have 13 states or colonies. Each gets an equal vote, one vote per state. They have different numbers of men at each table. Some states allow their delegates to decide amongst themselves. Some states will give delegates specific instructions. Here in the room on july 1, you will have nine of the delegations voting yes that we should be free and independent states. Two will vote no, and two will be either divided or not voting. New york is still waiting for formal instructions, so they will not vote at all. Delaware is divided. They have two of their delegates in the room, one for one against. Pennsylvania and South Carolina will vote no. On the rest of the first and into the second, the second is the date they want to take the official vote. The politicking is we want to make this unanimous. New york is going to be ignored for now. New york is going, we have to wait until they tell us what to do. Delaware has a third delegate. He is at home, so he rides overnight through the storm. Delawares quarter has a guy riding on a horse. He is the guy to break the tie in delaware. A vote yes for independence. Pennsylvania and South Carolina, South Carolina as three delegates. We assume it is 2 to 1. South carolina will be on board. Pennsylvania is more complicated. They have got one of the bigger delegations. When that vote goes south for pennsylvania, what they will do is convince two of the guys to walk away when they are ready to make the final votes so that it can be unanimous. John dickinson is one of those guys that will not vote against the pennsylvania delegates. Instead of one vote loss, it becomes a one vote when and now pennsylvania is on board. It is 12 to nothing. On july 2, 1776, they vote more or less unanimously to approve the notion of being free and independent states. That is the day that john adams would write to his wife. The next day is the date we should celebrate. Sadly for july 2, it never gets particularly remembered. The second, the third, and the fourth are the days of debating on the declaration of independence. In jeffersons draft, the declaration is about four pages long. They will go through every word. They will make a significant number of changes, but they will not change the basic nature of a lot of what jefferson writes. They will add words here or there. The most famous part is that opening paragraph. Most of that remains intact. The early listing of grievances, the things we have been talking about for several years, most of that remains intact. Probably the most famous section that gets changed is the section about the slave trade, specifically slave insurrections. One of the big arguments virginia makes his dear governor had essentially said in the early days of the war that slaves should kill their masters and seek their own freedom, which for a slaveholding state, insurrection is a frightening thing. It is on the mind of jefferson and other virginians, this idea of slave insurrection. Bringing more slaves into america becomes a part of that. We do not want to have more slaves to worry about. He goes after the slave trade, blames the king for importing these folks. That becomes a controversy in this room. You have a fair number of slaveholding states that do not want to talk about this. It does get put aside. It is not an attack on slavery but slave trade and some of these things they were worried about the british doing that would affect the lives in america. As you get into july 4, they are going through every bit of that declaration of independence. Taking a little bit out, adding words here and there but they get to something that all of the men in this room representing all 13 states can agree. They are ready to vote. It is 12 to 0 with new york waiting, so july 4 becomes for americans our day of independence. It is the day we literally have something concrete to hold up to the world. Here is what we are fighting for. When we look at the declaration of independence, we focus on that opening section. The idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness. It is that list of reasons why they are doing this. We justify independence. It justified a war against their own government, which is what they started out being. It is the british fault for this. This is all of the things they did that are not legal by constitution, british bill of rights. We are acting the way we have to act because we got to this point where we cannot stay under this rule. They had something that on july 4 they voted yes, and they voted right away to send it out. We want this to go to the states, the army. We want people to know what we are fighting for. That is what they needed, if you pull back to the big picture in the summer of 1776, we are not winning the war. The british army is invading new york that summer. Hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of men sweeping down through manhattan, new jersey. The british army is sitting in this very room. They captured philadelphia. Washington and his army spend the winter at valley forge. Those early days are not good ones for the United States. We had a declaration of independence we can hold up, announced to the world what we are fighting for. We had a general in washington that would keep going in those difficult days. We had an army that managed to survive those bad winters and we managed to keep ourselves long enough to keep going to make changes. One of the things people expect is that they signed the declaration of independence on the fourth of july. Sadly, they did not. The simplest explanation is that nobody thought about it that day. They had not gotten to the point of preparing a fancy handwritten one. They wanted the words agree to, voted on. And they wanted people to read it. They sent it to a printer. The oldest declaration of independence and no names on the bottom. Jump ahead a couple of weeks, and one of the men here in the room will make a proposal that the word they use is a gross. You make a formal version and to be signed by the delegates. Most of the men in the room said why do we not think of that sooner . They will have it handwritten, and by the beginning of august it is done. They make sure it is right and they will start signing it. About 50 guys signed it on august the second, and a a few more in the next couple of weeks. That is the one if you go to washington, d. C. , that is the one most of us think of as the declaration of independence. But like everything they will do here, it is one we get through by process rather than some massive plan we have at the beginning. They are making it up as they go along and figuring it out as they go. The other big thing that will happen in 1776, Benjamin Franklin will go to france. He will be the guy to convince france to join our side. While the british army is in this room, Benjamin Franklin is signing a peace treaty with france. That is changing the whole nature of the war. The british suddenly find they have to worry about a french navy. The United States does not have much of a navy to threaten the british fleet, but france does. The british have to worry about being invaded. They worked on the king to try to get some invasion of england going. You will have to worry if you are Great Britain about islands in the caribbean. You will be fighting in asia, africa, you will be fighting all over the world. A lot of resources are suddenly not coming here to america, which makes George Washingtons life easier. We will get money, supplies from france. We will get french troops, plus that french navy. If you think about the victory at yorktown, we are not going to get that victory without the french navy. Eventually, the war slowly turns in our favor. 1783 back in paris, john adams and Benjamin Franklin sign a peace treaty. Back in 1783, the Continental Congress can finally breathe that sigh of relief and note that we have achieved american independence. But that is not the end of the story. There is more to do. Go back to 1776. Each colony, each state writes its own constitution. Each one is different. Each one has its own set of government. I will use pennsylvania. This room was pennsylvanias legislature. Pennsylvania decides to write a constitution that is so radical for a state that they get rid of the position of governor. They will not have a chief executive for pennsylvania. They will have a democratically run legislature as opposed to the standard two houses that most states will use. This room was pennsylvanias legislature. Pennsylvania decides to write a constitution that is so radical for a state that they get rid of the position of governor. They will not have a chief executive for pennsylvania. They will have a democratically run legislature as opposed to the standard two houses that most states will use. Pennsylvania has got a very different set up. It proves to be too radical to work. It will last about 14 years. They go to the traditional governor, two houses of legislature. This is the idea in 1776. Each state will start itself over. The problem is, being all a little bit different. My colleague loves to talk about this today. We still have differences from state to state, speed limit, rules for driving will be different. We do still have vestiges there. In those early days, they manifested themselves in ways that threatened what someone like George Washington i