no thought of
independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the
King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any
reconciliation:

1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels.

2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade
with them.

3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them.

[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small
German states.]

These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15,
1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of
authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments
of their own and so become states.

On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from
Virginia, offered this resolution:

Resolved

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.

Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and
Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were
appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in
case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the
committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July
2, Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United
Colonies became free and independent states.

[Illustration: Campaigns of 1775-1776]

[Illustration: %The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall[1]]

[Footnote 1: From the _Columbian Magazine_ of July, 1787. The tower
faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For
the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's _Independence Hall._]

%138. Independence declared.%--Independence having thus been decreed,
the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says
in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to the separation." It was this "dec