eir counsel."[391]

"On the day agreed upon for the consideration of Mr. Lee's motion, the
1st of July, Congress resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole; the
debates on the question were continued with great warmth for _three
days_. It had been determined to take the vote by _colonies_; and as a
master-stroke of policy, the author of which is not known to history, it
had been proposed and agreed, that _the decision on the question,
whatever might be the state of the votes, should appear to the world as
the unanimous voice of the Congress_. On the first question [of
independence], _six_ colonies were in the affirmative, and _six_ in the
negative--_Pennsylvania_ being without a vote by the equal division of
her delegates. In this state of the business, it appears, on the
authority of evidence afterwards adduced before Parliament, that Mr.
_Samuel Adams_ once more successfully exerted his influence; and that
one of the delegates of Pennsylvania was brought over to the side of
independence. It is more probable, however, that the influence of Mr.
Adams extended no further than to procure that one of the dissenting
members withdraw from the House; and that the vote of Pennsylvania was
thus obtained."[392]

It is thus seen that the Declaration of Independence, so far from being
the spontaneous uprising of the American colonies, was the result of
months of agitation by scarcely a dozen leaders in the movement, by
canvassing at public meetings, and of delegates elected by them, not
excelled by any political and nearly balanced parties in England or
Canada in a life and death struggle for victory. In this case, the
important question was to be decided by some fifty members of Congress;
and when the first vote was given, after many weeks of popular
agitation, and three days of warm discussion in Congress, there was a
tie--six colonies for and six against the Declaration of
Independence--after which a majority of one was obtained for the
Declaration, by inducing the absence of certain members opposed to it;
and then, when a majority of votes was thus obtained, others were
persuaded to vote for the measure "_for the sake of unanimity_," though
they were opposed to the measure itself.

It has indeed been represented by some American historians, that the
vote of Congress for Independence was _unanimous_; but the fact is far
otherwise. As the vote was taken by _colonies_, and not by the majority
of the individual members prese