loud
acclamations, and with cannon peals, bonfires, and illuminations, the
patriots held a glorious carnival that night in the quiet city of Penn.

The Declaration of Independence was signed by John Hancock, the
President of Congress, only, on the day of its adoption, and thus it
went forth to the world. Congress ordered it to be entered at length
upon the journals; it was also ordered to be engrossed upon parchment
for the delegates to sign it. This last act was performed on the second
day of August ensuing, by the fifty-four delegates then present. Thomas
M'Kean, of Delaware, and Dr. Thornton, of New Hampshire, subsequently
signed it, making the whole number FIFTY-SIX. Upon the next two pages
are their names, copied from the original parchment, which is carefully
preserved in a glass case, in the rooms of the National Institute,
Washington City. It is our pride and righteous boast, and it should be
the pride and boast of mankind, that not one of those patriots who
signed that manifesto ever fell from the high moral elevation which he
then held: of all that band, not one, by word or act, tarnished his fair
fame.

The great Declaration was every where applauded; and, in the camp, in
cities, villages, churches, and popular assemblies, it was greeted with
every demonstration of joy. Washington received it at head-quarters, in
New York, on the ninth of July, and caused it to be read aloud at six
o'clock that evening at the head of each brigade. It was heard with
attention, and welcomed with loud huzzas by the troops. The people
echoed the acclaim, and on the same evening they pulled down the leaden
statue of the king, which was erected in the Bowling-Green, at the foot
of Broadway, in 1770, broke it in pieces, and consigned the materials to
the bullet-moulds.

[Illustration: SIGNATURES ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.]

At noon, on the seventeenth of July, Colonel Crafts read the Declaration
to a vast assemblage gathered in and around Faneuil Hall, in Boston,
and when the last paragraph fell from his lips, a loud huzza shook the
old "Cradle of Liberty." It was echoed by the crowd without, and soon
the batteries on Fort Hill, Dorchester, Nantasket, Long Island, the
Castle, and the neighboring heights of Charlestown, Cambridge, and
Roxbury boomed forth their cannon acclamations in thirteen rounds. A
banquet followed, and bonfires and illuminations made glad the city of
the Puritans.

[Illustration: SIGNATURES ON TH