U. S. Constitution were debated and signed. This Program FeaturingNational ParkService Ranger matthew ifel is about one hour. We are in a building that was built in the 1730s, so about 48 years before there was any such thing as the United States and at that time, of course, pennsylvania was a british colony. And this was its Capitol 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 are going to lead to the creation of the United States, most of which will happen in this room, because the colonies as time goes forward or at least many people of the Political Class in these colonies 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 the various taxes you learned about in school, were going to say this is taxation without representation. It is that idea you are not getting the voice. Thomas jefferson would write in the declaration of independence that government existing with the consent of the governed and americans feel like they are not getting that consent. Especially 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 space. The Continental Congress had met in philadelphia about one year earlier although they chose not to meet in Independence Hall that year. They met down the street at carpenters hall. The first set of meetings, what we call the first Continental Congress, is sort of the first sitdown 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. Theyll say, we are loyal british subjects in 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. However, 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 in may. 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 separately and for years had not necessarily resisted working together, but never particularly 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 picking George Washington to be the commander of that army. That is one of the most important decisions made in this room. If you think about the way this war will go for the young United States, it is 8 1 2 years. George washington will be the only commanding general we have for all of those years. At the end, he will succeed. Back in 1775, theyre still friging out exactly what theyre fighting for. That leads to one last letter to the king. We called this one the olive 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. Were a half a year, plus, into the war and its getting very clear that negotiating, talking, isnt particularly solving anything. Of course, you do have this very radical bent of men that are in this room that are pushing more and more towards this idea of independence and finally you get the last big push which is Thomas Paynes book commonsense published in philadelphia in january of 1776, selling tens of thousands of copies in 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, 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. 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. There are two men who can make that claim. Hes on our committee. Benjamin franklin from here in philadelphia, who is a far and away the most famous american at that time, 70 years old, oldest man in congress. And one of the younger guys in congress, Thomas Jefferson, 33 years old, 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. Some of the grechbs grievances that they had already been talking about make up the bulk of the declaration. By june 28, the declaration is back here in the assembly room. That is a friday. They will wait to the next monday to start debating. July 1st 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. Were 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 our independence because this cuts off any chance of negotiating with the british. Others might look at the idea that we do not have anyone helping us. 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 other side. Some saying we should slow down but most men are ready to move forward. On july 1st, they will hold a nonbinding committee vote. The vote is on the question of being free and independent states. Here is how voting works in the Continental Congress, you have 13 states or colonies, depending on your time period. 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 their delegates specific instructions. So here in the room on july the 1st, youre going to 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. Theyre divided. Pennsylvania and South Carolina are going to vote no. On the rest of the 1st into the 2nd, the politicking is we want to try to make this unanimous. New york theyre going to ignore. New york hasnt gotten any instructions. 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 they call for him to get here. So he rides overnight through the storm. If you did the state quarters, you would notice delawares quarter has a guy riding on a horse. His name is caesar rodney. He is the guy how comes up from delaware and gets here on the 2nd to vote and break the tie in delaware. And make delawares vote a yes for independence. Pennsylvania and South Carolina, South Carolina has three delegates. We assume it is 21. They manage to get one of the guys to switch his vote. 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 are going to do is convince two of the guys to walk away when they are ready to make the final vote so that it can be unanimous. They dont have to vote against how they feel. So John Dickinson is one of those guys that will not vote amongst the pennsylvania delegates. Instead of a onevote loss, it becomes a onevote win and now pennsylvania is on board. It is 12 to nothing. Again, we ignore new york for the moment. On july 2nd, 1776, they will vote more or less unanimously with new york kind of waiting to approve the notion of being free and independent states. That is a day that john adams would write to his wife the next day and say, this is what we should celebrate with parades and fireworks and speeches and so on. Sadly for poor july 2nd, it never gets particularly remembered. The 2nd, the 3rd, and the 4th 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 is another part of that. One of the big arguments that virginia makes is that their governor had said in the leading days of the war that slaves should basically kill their masters and seek their own freedom, which for a slaveholding state, slave insurrection is a frightening thing. It is on the minds 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 in these kind of days. He goes after the slave trade, blames the king for importing these folks. That is a bit controversial in this room. You have a fair number of slaveholders and slaveholding states that do not want to talk about this. It does get put aside. It is not an attack on slavery so to speak but slave trade and some of these things they were worried about the british doing that would affect the lives in america. At any rate, as you get into july 4th, theyre 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 120 with new york waiting and july 4th becomes for americans our day of independence. Its the day we had something concrete to hold up to the world. This is the day we said, heres what were fighting for, right here, theres a long list. Again, when we look at the declaration of independence, we focus on that top, that opening section, all men are created equal. It justified independence. It justified a war against their own government which essentially what this start out being and it said its the british fault for this. This is all the things they did that are really not legal by british constitution, british bill of rights and were just acting the way we have to act because we got to this point where we cant stay under this rule anymore. And so they had something that on july 4th they voted yes and they voted right away to send it out. We want this to go to the states and army. We want people to know what were fighting for. Thats what they needed. If you pull back to the big picture, were not winning the war. The british army is invading new york that summer, massive invasion. 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 difficult days. We had an army that managed to sur sur arrive those bad winters and we managed to keep ourselves going long enough that we could make changes. One other thing about our declaration of independence, about this room that people expect is that i will tell you that they signed the declaration of independence right behind me on the fourth of july, sadly, they didnt. It probably the simplest explanation, nobody thought about it that day. They wanted the words agreed to, they wanted it voted on and people to read it. They sent it to a printer. The oldest declaration of independence are printed on a Printing Press and have no names on the bottom. Well, you jump ahead a couple of weeks until the middle of the idea, one of the men will make a proposal that the they will engross the declaration of independence. You make a formal written version and it be signed by the delegates. And im sure most of the men in the room said, why dont we think of that sooner . Thats a good idea. Theyre going to have it handwritten and by the beginning of august, its done, its checked over. They make sure its all right. And theyll start signing. About 50 guys signed it on august the 2nd. A few more over the next couple of weeks. One guy for a couple of more years because he wasnt here for a while as a member of congress. Thats of course the one, if you go to washington, d. C. , the national archives, thats the one most of us think of as the declaration of independence. But its one that we just kind of, like everything theyre going to do here in this room, its one that we get to by process rather than by some master plan that we have at the beginning. Theyre sort of theyre making it up as they go along and figuring it out as they go. The other big thing that is going to happen is Benjamin Franklin is going to go to france. Hes going to be the guy thats going to help convince france to come into the war on our side. While the british army is in this room in early 1778, Benjamin Franklin is signing a peace treaty with france. Thats changing the whole nature of the war because the british suddenly find they have to worry about a french navy. The United States doesnt have much of a navy to threaten the british fleet, but france does. The british have to worry about being invaded. Certainly guys like <