On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Went To Print

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 Friday, July 5, 1776.

Congress had approved the Declaration of Independence the day before.

Now the words had to leave Philadelphia.

The vote for independence had happened July 2.

Congress approved the final text July 4.

By July 5, the Declaration had started moving.

The DX Brief

• Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
• John Dunlap printed the first broadside copies overnight and into July 5.
• The first printed copies carried the names of John Hancock and Charles Thomson, not the 56 signatures Americans know today.
• Congress sent copies to state governments and commanding officers of Continental troops.
• Congress also spent July 5 on war business involving Ticonderoga, Georgia, powder, prisoners, chaplains, lead, and dispatch routes.

The Declaration becomes a broadside

The Declaration became public through print.

Dunlap produced the first printed versions of the Declaration in his Philadelphia shop on the night of July 4 and into the early morning of July 5.

Those first printed copies did not look like the famous signed parchment Americans picture today.

They carried only the names of John Hancock, 39, president of Congress, and Charles Thomson, 46, secretary of Congress.

For the first public copies, that was enough.

The purpose was speed. Congress needed copies that could travel.

The printed sheets became known as Dunlap broadsides. The Library of Congress owns two surviving copies, and 26 copies of the first printing are known to survive today.

The news starts moving

July 5 turned the Declaration from an approved text into public news.

The first broadsides moved the words out of Congress and toward state governments, soldiers, and ordinary people.

That mattered because the Declaration was not meant to sit in Philadelphia.

It had to be carried, posted, read, and proclaimed.

Congress had ordered copies sent to the states and to the army. George Washington would have the Declaration read to the Continental Army in New York on July 9.

But the movement began with ink, paper, and a printer working overnight.

Not the famous parchment

The July 5 copies were not the engrossed parchment.

Congress would not order the Declaration engrossed on parchment until July 19. Most delegates would not begin signing that copy until August 2.

That makes July 5 easy to misunderstand.

This was not the day of the vote.

It was not the day most delegates signed.

It was the day the Declaration began moving as printed news.

Congress keeps the war moving

Congress did not spend July 5 only on the Declaration.

The Journals of the Continental Congress show delegates continued handling the business of war.

Congress empowered George Washington, 44, to order three of the fullest regiments stationed in Massachusetts to march immediately to Ticonderoga, while allowing Massachusetts militia to take their place if needed.

The Board of War also brought in reports. Congress called for a chaplain in every Continental Army regiment, raised chaplains’ pay to $33⅓ per month, and ordered immediate steps to secure lead in the colonies.

Congress moved supplies and prisoners, too.

It ordered five tons of powder sent to Gen. Andrew Lewis at Williamsburg for troops in the southern department, with part of it to be forwarded to South Carolina. It also ordered British officers and soldiers held prisoner in New Jersey sent to York, Pennsylvania.

Then Congress addressed communication.

It directed the postmaster general to establish express routes between Philadelphia and New York and asked Washington to send dispatches to Congress every day.

As the Declaration went out, powder, prisoners, troops, chaplains, lead, and dispatches still filled the congressional day.

Why it mattered

Congress had approved the final text on July 4.

Dunlap’s shop turned it into printed broadsides that could leave Philadelphia.

The Declaration was no longer only a document approved by Congress. It became news that state governments, military commanders, soldiers, and the public could receive.

At the same time, Congress kept managing the war that would decide whether those words survived.

That is what July 5 shows.

The Declaration left the room.

The war kept going.

Tomorrow on Road to Independence

July 6, 1776: John Hancock sent the Declaration to George Washington, directing him to have it proclaimed at the head of the army.

Read yesterday’s installment: Congress Approved The Declaration. Now Read It.