and turned the vote of that colony in
favor of the resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that
morning from Pennsylvania also, her vote was changed; so that the whole
twelve colonies, who were authorized to vote at all, gave their votes
for it; and within a few days [July 9th] the convention of New York
approved of it, and thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing
of their delegates from the vote.' [Be careful to observe, that this
vacillation and vote were on the original motion of the 7th of June,
by the Virginia delegates, that Congress should declare the colonies
independent.] 'Congress proceeded, the same day, to consider the
Declaration of Independence, which had been reported and laid on the
table the Friday preceding, and on Monday referred to a Committee of
the whole. The pusillanimous idea, that we had friends in England worth
keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason,
those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were
struck out, lest they should give them offence. The debates having taken
up the greater parts of the second, third, and fourth days of July,
were, in the evening of the last, closed: the Declaration was reported
by the Committee, agreed to by the House, and signed by every member
present except Mr. Dickinson.' So far my notes.

Governor M'Kean, in his letter to M'Corkle of July 16th, 1817, has
thrown some lights on the transactions of that day: but, trusting to his
memory chiefly, at an age when our memories are not to be trusted, he
has confounded two questions, and ascribed proceedings to one which
belonged to the other. These two questions were, 1st, the Virginia
motion of June the 7th, to declare Independence; and 2nd, the actual
Declaration, its matter and form. Thus he states the question on the
Declaration itself, as decided on the 1st of July; but it was the
Virginia motion which was voted on that day in committee of the whole;
South Carolina, as well as Pennsylvania, then voting against it. But the
ultimate decision in the House, on the report of the Committee, being,
by request, postponed to the next morning, all the states voted for it,
except New York, whose vote was delayed for the reason before stated. It
was not till the 2nd of July, that the Declaration itself was taken up;
nor till the 4th, that it was decided, and it was signed by every member
present, except Mr. Dickinson.

The subsequent signatures of m