- On This Day In 1776, Adams Saw The Cost Of Independence
- On This Day In 1776, Jefferson Had A Draft And Washington Had A Crisis
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Sent A Life Guard Member To The Gallows For Betrayal
- On This Day In 1776, Jefferson’s Draft Reached Congress As War Erupted
- On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Appeared Off New York
- On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Swelled Off New York As Washington Warned ‘Delays Are Dangerous’
- On This Day In 1776, Independence Had A Majority But Not Unity
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Held The Actual Vote For Independence
- On This Day In 1776, The Vote Was Done But The Declaration Was Not
- On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Went To Print
- On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Hit The Newspapers
- On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Kept Moving As Washington Braced For Attack
- On This Day In 1776, Washington’s Army Heard The Declaration And New York Tore Down The King
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned His Army Independence Was Not A License For Riot
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned The British Could Strike At Any Moment
- On This Day In 1776, British Warships Fired Their Way Past Washington’s Guns
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Refused A British Letter That Would Not Call Him General
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Rushed Supplies As British Warships Threatened The Hudson
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Approved The Declaration. Now Read It.
- On This Day In 1776, Washington And Franklin Rejected Britain’s Pardon Offer
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Ordered The Declaration Onto Parchment As Washington Built Defenses
- On This Day In 1776, Boston Burned The King’s Arms As America Looked Beyond Britain
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Called Britain’s Peace Commission A Deception
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Told Washington To Deploy Troops As He Saw Fit
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Said British Troops Fought ‘To Enslave Us’
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned ‘The Sick Must Perish’ If The Market Failed
- On This Day In 1776, British Ships Closed In As Washington Waited For Nearly 7,000 Troops
- On This Day In 1776, A Jewish Merchant Sent The Declaration To Europe
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Soldiers Not To Drink New York’s Water
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Tightened Password Security As British Ships Arrived
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Troops Their Divisions Helped The Enemy
- On This Day In 1776, America’s Founders Signed Their Names Beneath The Declaration
It was Friday, June 28, 1776.
The Declaration of Independence finally reached Congress.
Delegates read the draft, then ordered it to “lie on the table.” No final vote. No adoption. No signatures.
But the day did not wait for ceremony.
In Philadelphia, Congress received the words that would explain independence to the world. In New York, Thomas Hickey went to the gallows. In Charleston Harbor, British warships opened fire on Fort Sullivan.
The DX Brief
- The Committee of Five brought the draft Declaration of Independence to Congress on June 28, 1776.
- Congress read the draft and ordered it to lie on the table.
- Thomas Hickey, a former member of Washington’s Life Guard, was executed in New York that same day.
- Washington told John Hancock that “part of my Guard” had joined the plot.
- British warships attacked Fort Sullivan in Charleston Harbor, but Patriot defenders held the fort.
Declaration Enters Congress
The Declaration entered the room on June 28.
The Journals of the Continental Congress for June 28 say the committee appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence “brought in a draft,” which Congress read and ordered to lie on the table.
For more than two weeks, Thomas Jefferson’s draft had moved through a small circle that included John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. On June 28, the document reached the full Congress.
The Library of Congress describes the scene in one historical image: Jefferson places the draft on the table, Franklin sits nearby, John Hancock sits behind the table, and Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston stand behind Jefferson.
The vote still had not happened.
Congress would not take up the independence question again until Monday, July 1.
Congress Handles The Details
After Congress read the draft and ordered it to “lie on the table,” delegates turned back to the business already in front of them.
The Journals of the Continental Congress record that Congress added Francis Hopkinson to the committee preparing a plan of confederation, directed the Secret Committee to sell 300 pounds of powder to Salem County, New Jersey, and appointed a committee to speak with Anthony Mosengeil about manufacturing sulphur.
Congress also advanced up to $100,000 to Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety, roughly $3.8 million today under one CPI-based estimate, and dealt with appointments tied to small-denomination currency.
Then Congress adjourned until Monday.
Hickey Goes To The Gallows
In New York, Washington’s warning from the day before became reality.
Thomas Hickey, a former member of Washington’s Life Guard, was executed on June 28 after a court-martial convicted him of mutiny, sedition, and treachery.
Washington’s June 28 general orders called it “The unhappy Fate of Thomas Hickey” and said he had been “executed this day.”
Washington wanted the army to learn from it.
The general orders said he hoped Hickey’s death would serve as a “warning to every Soldier.”
A note in Founders Online cites a New York newspaper report saying the execution took place near Bowery Lane in front of “near 20,000 spectators.”
This was not a private punishment.
It was a public message to an army waiting for the British to arrive.
Washington Writes Hancock
Washington also wrote John Hancock on June 28 and described the plot more carefully.
He said Congress had likely heard about the plot “forming among many disaffected persons” in New York to help the King’s troops when they arrived.
Washington said the matter traced back to Gov. William Tryon and that New York Mayor David Mathews appeared to be a “principal agent” or go-between.
Then Washington put the danger closer to home.
“The plot had been communicated to some of the Army, and part of my Guard engaged in It,” Washington wrote in his June 28 letter to Hancock.
He said Hickey had been tried, sentenced to die, and would face execution that day at 11 o’clock.
Washington also said he hoped the example would “deter others from entering into the like traiterous practices.”
That was the point of making the execution public.
Washington wanted soldiers to see the cost of treacherous contact with the enemy as New York waited for Britain’s next move.
Charleston Comes Under Fire
June 28 also brought a major fight in the South.
British warships attacked Fort Sullivan in Charleston Harbor.
The National Park Service calls the Battle of Sullivan’s Island the first decisive Patriot victory over the British Royal Navy.
The fort was unfinished. South Carolinians and enslaved Africans had built it from palmetto logs and sand. Col. William Moultrie and the 2nd South Carolina Regiment defended it.
On June 28, British ships moved toward the fort and opened fire.
The palmetto walls held.
A British account later printed in the Middlesex Journal captured how surprising the defense looked from the fleet. The writer said British ships sat before the battery for nine hours and had to retire “with great loss.” He wrote that the Provincials held their fire until the ships came within “point blank shot,” then fired slowly but with effect.
“I can scarcely believe what I saw on that day,” the writer said.
The NPS says the soft, spongy palmetto trunks absorbed cannon fire instead of shattering. British ships failed to break the fort, and Charleston stayed in Patriot hands.
So while Congress read Jefferson’s draft in Philadelphia, Americans in South Carolina proved British naval power could be stopped.
Why It Mattered
June 28, 1776, brought the Declaration into Congress, but the day did not belong to the document alone.
Congress read the draft and put it on the table. Washington carried out the execution of a Life Guard in New York. British ships attacked Fort Sullivan in Charleston Harbor.
That is the frame for the day.
The argument for independence arrived in Philadelphia while the war tested that cause in New York and South Carolina.
The Declaration could explain why the colonies were breaking from Britain.
It could not stop the fighting.
On June 28, the words arrived in Congress. The war was already waiting.
Tomorrow On Road To Independence
June 29, 1776: Congress had adjourned for the weekend, but the war did not. British ships moved closer to New York, and Washington braced for the campaign he had feared.
Read yesterday’s installment: Washington Ordered A Former Life Guard To The Gallows For Betrayal.
