e
French government and the Amsterdam bankers, was an event which occurred
early in the revolution. The representatives of the different colonies
had gathered in Philadelphia to discuss matters of common importance. It
was the first year of the Revolution. Most of the big towns of the
sea coast were still in the hands of the British. Reinforcements
from England were arriving by the ship load. Only men who were deeply
convinced of the righteousness of their cause would have found the
courage to take the momentous decision of the months of June and July of
the year 1776.

In June, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a motion to the
Continental Congress that "these united colonies are, and of right ought
to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection
between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be, totally
dissolved."

The motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. It was carried
on July the second and on July fourth, it was followed by an official
Declaration of Independence, which was the work of Thomas Jefferson, a
serious and exceedingly capable student of both politics and government
and destined to be one of the most famous of out American presidents.

When news of this event reached Europe, and was followed by the final
victory of the colonists and the adoption of the famous Constitution of
the year 1787 (the first of all written constitutions) it caused great
interest. The dynastic system of the highly centralised states which had
been developed after the great religious wars of the seventeenth century
had reached the height of its power. Everywhere the palace of the king
had grown to enormous proportions, while the cities of the royal realm
were being surrounded by rapidly growing acres of slums. The inhabitants
of those slums were showing signs of restlessness. They were quite
helpless. But the higher classes, the nobles and the professional men,
they too were beginning to have certain doubts about the economic and
political conditions under which they lived. The success of the American
colonists showed them that many things were possible which had been held
impossible only a short time before.

According to the poet, the shot which opened the battle of Lexington was
"heard around the world." That was a bit of an exaggeration. The Chinese
and the Japanese and the Russians (not to speak of the Aus