On This Day In 1776, The Vote Was Done But The Declaration Was Not

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 Wednesday, July 3, 1776.

Congress had voted for independence the day before.

But Congress still had not finished the Declaration.

Delegates spent the day working through Thomas Jefferson’s draft, editing the language that would explain the break with Britain to the world. Congress would not approve the final text until July 4.

Adams, 40, left one of the clearest reactions to the vote. Writing to Abigail Adams, 31, the next day, he predicted July 2 would become “the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.”

He was wrong about the date Americans would celebrate.

He was right about what had happened.

The DX Brief

• Congress had voted for independence on July 2, 1776.
• On July 3, delegates kept editing the Declaration of Independence.
• Congress did not finish the Declaration that day and agreed to continue work on July 4.
• John Adams wrote Abigail Adams that July 2 would become America’s great anniversary.
• Adams expected future celebrations with “Pomp and Parade,” “Guns,” “Bells,” “Bonfires,” and “Illuminations.”

Congress kept editing the Declaration

July 3 was not the day Congress declared independence.

That had happened the day before.

On July 3, Congress turned back to the Declaration itself. The Journals of the Continental Congress record that Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole to continue considering the Declaration.

The committee still did not finish.

Benjamin Harrison reported that the committee wanted more time, and Congress agreed to take up the Declaration again the next day.

That is why July 3 matters.

The political break with Britain had already happened. The public explanation still needed work.

The National Archives says Congress revised the Declaration through all of July 3 and most of July 4 before adopting it in the afternoon of July 4.

Adams thought July 2 would be remembered

In a July 3 letter to Abigail Adams, he wrote that the delay had helped the colonies come around to independence.

Time, Adams said, had allowed people to debate the question through newspapers, pamphlets, assemblies, conventions, committees, town meetings, county meetings, and private conversations.

Then Adams made his prediction.

“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America,” Adams wrote.

That is the part most Americans never learned in school.

Adams believed July 2 would become the great anniversary because July 2 was the day Congress voted for independence.

The final text of the Declaration would come two days later.

He pictured the celebration

Adams did not stop with the date.

He imagined what the anniversary would look like.

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival,” Adams wrote.

He said the day should be marked by “solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.”

Then came the line that sounds like every Fourth of July celebration Americans know today.

“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” Adams wrote.

He expected the celebration.

He just expected it on July 2.

The country later attached the celebration to July 4, the date Congress approved the Declaration’s final text.

Adams knew the cost

Adams did not confuse celebration with ease.

He did not pretend independence would come cheaply.

“You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not,” Adams wrote.

Then he laid out the price.

“I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States,” Adams wrote.

That sentence belongs with the fireworks line.

Adams could see the celebration, but he could also see the war behind it.

British forces were gathering near New York. Canada had gone badly. Congress still had to finish the Declaration. Washington still had to defend the decision.

Adams still believed the end was worth the cost.

“Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory,” he wrote.

Congress handled war business too

Congress did not spend July 3 only on the Declaration.

The Journals show delegates also handled military and supply matters. Congress asked Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety to send available troops to Monmouth County, New Jersey, and directed a circular letter to Pennsylvania county committees raising troops.

Congress also directed George Washington, 44, to appoint an officer to command the flying camp and handle rations for the men.

The Marine Committee received authority to contract with shipwrights to go to Lake Champlain.

That was the working reality behind the Declaration.

Congress was editing the words of independence while still trying to move men, supplies, and skilled labor into the war.

Why it mattered

July 3, 1776, was the day between the decision and the document.

Congress had voted for independence on July 2.

It had not yet approved the Declaration.

That made July 3 a day of editing, delay, and expectation.

Adams saw the meaning immediately. He believed future generations would celebrate the vote with parades, bells, bonfires, and illuminations. He also knew the new states would have to pay for independence in toil, blood, and treasure.

That is what makes the day worth remembering.

The vote had happened.

Congress was still finishing the words.

The celebration Adams imagined was already taking shape, even if history attached it to July 4 instead.

Tomorrow on Road to Independence

July 4, 1776: Congress approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence. The country would remember that date, even though the vote for independence had come two days earlier.

Read yesterday’s installment: Congress Held The Actual Vote For Independence.