On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Hit The Newspapers

ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

• 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 Saturday, July 6, 1776.

The Declaration had left Congress.

Now it started reaching the country.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post printed the Declaration that day, giving Americans the first newspaper version of the newly adopted text.

John Hancock, 39, also sent copies toward George Washington, 44, and the states.

He did not treat the Declaration as a document for politicians only.

He wanted people to hear it.

The decision had moved from Congress to the public.

Now the Revolution had words Americans could read or hear.

The DX Brief

• The first newspaper printing of the Declaration appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 6, 1776.
• John Hancock sent the Declaration to George Washington and asked him to have it proclaimed at the head of the army.
• Hancock also sent copies to state leaders so the people could be “universally informed” of the decision.
• Robert Treat Paine wrote that “the issue is joined.”
• Congress kept handling war business, including powder for New York, militia supplies, army correspondence, and the Canada campaign.

The Declaration hits the newspaper

The Declaration became newspaper copy on July 6.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post, printed by Benjamin Towne in Philadelphia, published the first newspaper version of the Declaration.

That mattered.

Most Americans would not see the original document. They would encounter the Declaration through newspapers, broadsides, public readings, and word of mouth.

The first newspaper printing helped push the Declaration beyond Congress and into everyday life.

By the end of August, the Declaration had appeared in at least 29 newspapers and 14 broadsides.

But on July 6, that public spread was just beginning.

Hancock sends it to Washington

Hancock also sent the Declaration to Washington in New York.

In his July 6 letter, Hancock told Washington that Congress had decided to “dissolve the Connection between Great Britain and the American Colonies” and declare them “free & independent States.”

Then Hancock gave the order that would carry the Declaration into the army.

He asked Washington to have it “proclaimed at the Head of the Army” in whatever way Washington thought best.

That was the point.

The army needed to know what it was fighting for.

Three days later, Washington ordered the Declaration read aloud to his brigades in New York.

Not just words on paper

Hancock’s letter did not stop with the Declaration.

He also wrote about ten thousand flints for Washington’s army, militia moving from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, ship carpenters headed north for lake defenses, and arms captured from Scottish transports.

That mix says everything about the moment.

Independence had become public news.

The war still demanded flints, arms, men, ships, supplies, and discipline.

The Declaration gave the cause its words.

The army still had to make those words survive.

The people had to hear it

Hancock also sent copies to state leaders.

He wanted the Declaration proclaimed in a way that would make “the People” universally informed.

The colonies had voted to become free and independent states. Now the people had to hear that decision, understand it, and live with the consequences.

Congress keeps working

Congress did not stop for celebration on July 6.

The Journals of the Continental Congress show delegates kept handling the machinery of war.

Congress read letters from Washington, Gen. Philip Schuyler, and Gen. John Sullivan, then referred them to the Board of War and Ordnance.

It ordered one ton of powder delivered to New York.

It added William Floyd, Caesar Rodney, and Abraham Clark to the committee investigating the failures in Canada.

It directed Schuyler to collect and audit the public accounts of the late Gen. Richard Montgomery.

It also appointed a commissary to supply militia marching from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.

The Declaration had gone public.

Congress still had to fight.

“The issue is joined”

Robert Treat Paine, 45, captured the mood that day in a letter to Joseph Palmer.

Paine wrote that the Declaration had passed with 12 colonies and New York silent until its new convention acted.

“Thus the issue is joined,” Paine wrote.

Then he put the stakes plainly.

“Our hearts are full, our hands are full; may God, in whom we trust, support us.”

That was July 6.

The Declaration was no longer only a congressional act.

It had become a message moving through newspapers, letters, states, and military channels.

Why it mattered

July 6, 1776, took the Declaration public.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post gave Americans the first newspaper printing.

Hancock sent copies to Washington and state leaders.

Congress kept pushing war supplies, military correspondence, and committee work because independence still had to be defended.

That is what makes the day important.

The Declaration did not become powerful because it sat in Philadelphia.

It became powerful because people heard it, read it, repeated it, and fought for it.

On July 6, those words started reaching them.

Tomorrow on Road to Independence

July 7, 1776: Congress did not meet on Sunday, but the Declaration kept moving toward the states and Washington’s army as New York braced for battle.

Read yesterday’s installment: The Declaration Started Moving.