Declaration of Independence

a famous act of the Continental Congress. June 10,1776, a committee of five, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, was appointed to draw up the Declaration. The chairman framed the report. A few clauses in the charges against the king were canceled by the Congress, but the Declaration as it stands today is substantially the work of Thomas Jefferson. It was reported June 28th. It was adopted July 4th amid the ringing of bells and general jubilee. Copies were sent out broadcast over the signature of the president and secretary. July 19th Congress ordered the Declaration engrossed on parchment, that the historic document might be signed by the members. August 2d it was signed by fifty-three members, then present. Absentees and others signed later. The last signature was fixed November 4th. In 1823 a copperplate facsimile was made under orders of President J. Q. Adams. In the process, the artist faded the original text and the signatures until portions are illegible. Up to this date the Declaration was shown freely and on special occasions thereafter, but in 1823 it was sealed up in a steel case secure from light and decay. It rests in the keeping of the secretary of state at Washington. It is said that, of all the fifty-six signers, not one died with a tarnished reputation. The last survivor, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, passed away in 1832.