ote to a friend, saying that he began to
apprehend that he had undertaken a fatigue which at his time of life might
prove too much for him; and so he had taken paper, he said, to write to a
few friends by way of farewell.

He did, however, safely return, after a time, though unfortunately the
mission proved unsuccessful. The Canadians were not disposed to join the
confederation.

At length early in the spring of 1776 the leading statesmen of America
came to the conclusion that the end of the contest in which they were
engaged must be the absolute and final separation of the colonies from the
mother country, and the establishment of an independent government for
America. When this was resolved upon, a committee of five members of
Congress, namely Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Livingston, were
appointed a committee to prepare a declaration of independence. The
original resolution, on the basis of which the appointment of this
committee was made, was as follows:

"Resolved, That these united colonies are and of right ought to be free
and independent states, and that all political connection between them and
Great Britain is, and of right ought to be totally dissolved."

[Illustration: The Committee.]

This resolution was first proposed and debated on the 8th of June. Some of
the provinces were however found to be not quite prepared for such a
measure, and so the debate was adjourned. The vote was finally taken on
the 1st of July, and carried by a majority of nine out of thirteen
colonies. Pennsylvania and South Carolina were against it; Delaware was
divided; and New York did not vote, on account of some informality in the
instructions of her delegates.

In the mean time the committee had proceeded to the work of drawing up the
declaration of independence. Jefferson was appointed to write the
document, and he, when he had prepared his draft, read it in committee
meeting for the consideration of the other members. The committee approved
the draft substantially as Jefferson had written it, and it was
accordingly reported to Congress and was adopted by the vote of all the
colonies.

For by the time that the final and decisive vote was to be taken, the
delegates from all the colonies had received fresh instructions from their
constituents, or fresh intelligence in respect to the state of public
sentiment in the communities which they represented, so that at last the
concurrence of the co