That was built in the 1730s, about 40 years before there was any such thing as the United States of america. Pennsylvania was a british colony. This was its capital building. Capitol building. They would make laws for pennsylvania and each of the 13 colonies has its own government. These are the issues in a lot of ways that will lead to the creation of the United States, most of which will happen in this room, because the colonies , as time goes forward, or at least many people in the Political Class of these colonies will start to grow , dissatisfied with the way the British Government is treating them, is affecting their lives locally, and one of the other side issues is americans living in the colonies do not get to vote in british elections. So when the parliament in london makes laws for americans, the most famous being various taxes you get to learn about in school, we will say this is taxation without representation. It is that idea you are not getting the voice. Thomas jefferson would write in the declaration of independence about government existing with the consent of the governed and americans are feeling like they are not getting that consent. When it starts disappearing locally as well as connected with the home country in london and britain that they are really going to get this growing dissatisfaction. So, this room is long in use by pennsylvania, but, by 1775, pennsylvania will essentially be inviting the Continental Congress into their state. The Continental Congress had met in philadelphia about a year earlier although they chose not to meet in independence. They met down the street at carpenters hall. The first set of meetings is sort of the first sit down of these different colonies and it is this idea of expressing to the British Government what would be under british constitution and bill of rights at that time this notion of redressing grievances we would have as british subjects and ultimately the right to theely they write king. We are loyal british subjects in america but these things are , happening, we have these grievances over loss of rights, loss of connection with the government. The fact they are taking away some of our local government, closing down our local courts, giving us these rules to follow that we have no say. They write this letter to the king, which, again, perfectly within your rights under british law. They agree as a group on an association that these 13 colonies will kind of Work Together in the future on these big issues. What happens is they go home after that meeting set of meetings in the fall of 1774. Communicating across the ocean in the late 1700s will take a little while. They will not come back to philadelphia until the spring of 1775. However things have changed in , those few months. In the area of boston, you will have the battles of the towns of lexington and concord in april. When congress is coming back to here to philadelphia, this is sort of the news. They are actually finding out in some way about some of the conflict that has begun. Suddenly, things being a lot more serious leads to more serious circumstances when Congress Starts to meet in this room and may. In the first big thing they may. Will tackle is this notion of working as a group but the idea of maybe fighting for those rights, actually taking that militia, Minuteman Army up around boston and making it an american army, the continental army. In june of 1775, one of the really first big steps that will be taken as far as changing the world is going to be creating this continental army, this american army, 13 separate colonies that had run their lives separately and for years had not resisted together but it never worked out that they wanted to Work Together at the same time. They finally create this army june 14, 1775, taking the , beginnings of the army up in boston, that had fought against the british already making it , the american army, and taking picking George Washington to be the commander of that army. That is one of the most important decisions made in this room. Because, if you think about the way this war will go for the young United States, it is 8. 5 years. George washington will be the only commanding general we have for all of those years. At the end, he will succeed. Back in they are still figuring 1775, out what they are fighting for. That leads to one last letter to the king. We called this one the olive branch petition. Again like they had done before, it starts off with the idea that we are loyal british subjects fighting for our rights, again going, following the chain of command in britain to the king that asks that he assist us in redressing these grievances. The other thing they will write is a declaration called the declaration of the causes and necessities of taking up arms. Both of these things will be written in july. It is putting out there to the world exactly what we are looking to do, to correct this situation we feel has gone against us and our rights are being threatened or taken away. Well unfortunately, the british , government in london will decide that they will not communicate with the Continental Congress. The king himself will announce that there is this rebellion in america, and the British Government will essentially issue this letter to americans that says if you will be involved in this rebellion we , will view you as a traitor. Treason, is serious then as it is now, could lead to a death penalty. By early 1776, that news arrived in philadelphia. It is getting very clear that negotiating, talking is not particularly solving anything. And of course you do have this , very radical bent of men in this room that are pushing more and more toward this idea of independence and finally you get the last big push, which is Thomas Paynes book common sense, selling tens of thousands of copies to the colonies and his simple argument is we do not need those guys in london. We are better off on our own. We could run america better than the british ever could. This idea of independence swells through that spring. By june, virginia introduces a resolution for american independence. They decide to not address it right away in june. They are going to want to consult their home governments, their home colonies or states, if we want to call them that because we are getting to that , point. At the same time, they want to put something on paper. While they are each consulting home to see what home says they should do, they will also form this fiveman committee, john adams of massachusetts, probably in a lot of ways one of the most significant guys in congress those early days. He is pushing for the creation of the army in 1775. Also the navy in the fall of 1775. He is pushing in the spring of 1776 that each of the colonies write its own constitution, which is another step towards independence each colony getting rid of that old charter from the British Government, creating a new, independent constitution. He is one of the leaders in this movement. Also on the committee, a man named Robert Livingston of new york, who actually goes back 10 years to meetings held over the stamp taxes. You have a man from connecticut named Roger Sherman who ends up signing not only the declaration of independence, the United States constitution, but also the articles of confederation. There are only two men who can make that claim. Benjamin franklin from here in philadelphia, who is a far and away the most famous american at the time at 70 years old, oldest , man in congress, and one of the younger guys in congress, our fifth member Thomas Jefferson, 33yearold, that growing reputation for his writing and political thought. The committee deciding what they want to say decides jefferson should be the writer. He works for 17 days on the declaration of independence, and he will especially go to john adams and Benjamin Franklin for some of their ideas and critiques of his writing. But generally it is generally his work. But generally it is his work. He is building on a lot of other things both he and others have written. Some of the grievances they talk about makes up the big bulk of the declaration of independence. By june 28, the declaration is back here in the assembly room. But that is a friday. They will wait to the next monday to start debating. July 1 begins debate on independence. The first thing they will debate is not the declaration but the idea. They will start discussing is this really the best thing for us to do . Should we become these free and independent states . Most men in the room are at that point where they are ready to make this step. But there are others they are not loyal. They are not going to have loyalists in the Continental Congress. But they are men who are maybe a little bit more conservative who say this might not be such a good idea. John dickinson is one of the most important. He was the author of the letters of a pennsylvania farmer, which is against some of those various taxes and acts, the stamp tax and so on. He is one of our bestknown political writers of the day. He is sort of pulling back, saying the idea of how are we going to win the war against the british . This does not seem like the best idea in the world. This completely cuts off any chance of negotiating with the british. Others might look at the idea others might look at the idea that we do not have anyone helping us. Again britain is one of the , great powers of the world. America, 3 Million People and there are a chunk of them remaining loyal to the crown. There will be battles in this war, after all, with just americans on both sides. Some saying we should slow down , but most of the men are ready to move forward. On july 1, they will hold a committee nonbinding committee of the whole vote. The vote is on the question of being free and independent states. Heres how voting works in the Continental Congress. You have 13 states or colonies. Each gets an equal vote, one vote per state. They have different numbers of men at each table. Some states allow their delegates to decide amongst themselves. Some states will give delegates specific instructions. Here in the room on july 1, you will have nine of the delegations voting yes that we should be free and independent states. Two will vote no, and two will be either divided or not voting. New york is still waiting for formal instructions, so they will not vote at all. Delaware is divided. They have two of their delegates in the room, 14, 1 against. One fo r, one against. Pennsylvania and South Carolina will vote no. On the rest of the first and into the second, the second is the date they want to take the binding vote, the official vote. The politicking is we want to make this unanimous. New york, they are going to ignore. New york is going, we have to wait until they tell us what to do. Delaware, fortunately has a , third delegate. He is at home, so he rides overnight through the storm. Delawares quarter has a guy riding on a horse, his name is caesar rodney. He is the guy to break the tie in delaware. Delawares vote yes for independence. Pennsylvania and South Carolina, South Carolina has got three delegates. We assume it is two to one. South carolina will be on board. Pennsylvania is more complicated. They have got one of the bigger delegations. When that vote goes south for pennsylvania, what they will do is convince two of the guys to walk away when they are ready to make the final vote so that it can be unanimous. They do not have to vote against how they feel. John dickinson is one of those guys that will not vote amongst the pennsylvania delegates. Instead of one vote loss, it becomes a onevote win, pennsylvania is on board, and it is 12 to nothing. On july 2, 1776, they vote more or less unanimously, with new york waiting to approve the , notion of being free and independent states. That is a day that john adams would write to his wife. This is what we should celebrate with parades and speeches and so on. Sadly for july 2, it never gets particularly remembered. The second, the third, and the fourth are the days of debating on the declaration of independence. The declaration, and jeffersons draft is about four pages long. , in jeffersons draft is , about four pages long. They will go through every word. They will make a significant number of changes, but they will not change the basic nature of a lot of what jefferson writes. They will add words here or there. The most famous part is that opening paragraph or two. Most of that remains intact. The early listing of grievances, the things we have been talking about for several years as far as what we are worried about the british doing most of that , remains intact. Probably the most famous section that gets changed is the section about the slave trade, specifically slave insurrections. One of the big arguments virginia makes is there governor governor had essentially said in the early days of the war that slaves should kill their masters and seek their own freedom, which for a slaveholding state, slave insurrection is a frightening thing. That is very much on the minds of jefferson and other virginians, so this idea of slave insurrection bringing more , slaves into america becomes a part of that. We do not want to have more slaves to worry about. He goes after the slave trade, blames the king for importing these folks. That is a bit controversial in this room because you have a fair number of sleep holders and slaveholding states that do not want to talk about this. And slaveholding states that do not want to talk about this. It does get put aside. It is not an attack on slavery but slave trade and some of these things they were worried about the british doing that would affect the lives in america. As you get into july 4, they are going through pretty well every bit of that declaration of independence, but finally taking , a little bit out, adding words here and there but they get to something that all of the men in this room representing all 13 states can agree. They are ready to vote. On the fourth, it is the same boat. Vote. It is 12 to 0 with new york waiting. July 4 becomes for americans our day of independence. It is the day we literally have something concrete to hold up to the world. It is the day we said here is , what we are fighting for. Again when we look at the , declaration of independence, we focus on that opening section. All men are created equal, the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is that list of reasons why they are doing this. Independence. It justified a war against their own government, which is what they started out being. This is all of the things they did that are not legal by british constitution, british bill of rights. We are acting the way we have to act because we got to this point where we cannot stay under this rule anymore. And so they had something that on july 4 they voted yes, and they voted right away to send it out. They said we want this to go to , the states, the army. We want people to know what we are fighting for. And that is really what they needed because if you pull back to the big picture in the summer of 1776, we are not winning the war. The british army is invading new york invading new york that summer, massive. Hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of men sweeping down through manhattan, new jersey. We had aof 1777, general in washington that would keep going in difficult days. We had an army that managed to survive those bad winters and we managed to keep ourselves long enough that we could make changes. Roomther thing about this that people expect is that i will tell you that they signed the declaration of independence on the fourth of july. Sadly, they did not. The simplest explanation is that nobody thought about it that day. They had not gotten to the point of preparing a fancy handwritten one. They wanted the words agreed to, they wanted it voted on, and they wanted people to read it. They sent it to a printer. Technically the oldest , declaration of independence was printed on a Printing Press and has no names on the bottom. Jump ahead a couple of weeks, and one of the men here in the room will make a proposal that we the word they use is in gross engross. You make a formal version and to be signed by the delegates. Most of the men in the room said why do we not think of that sooner . They will have it handwritten, and by the beginning of august it is done. It is checked over. They make sure it is right. They make sure it is right and they will start signing it. About 50 guys signed it on august the second, and a few more in the next couple of weeks. One might not be for a couple more years. That is the one if you go to washington, d. C. , that is the one most of us think of as the declaration of independence. It is one that we just kind of, like everything they will do in this room, get through by process rather than some massive master plan we have at the beginning. They are making it up as they go along and figuring it out as they go. The other big thing that will happen that late year of 1776 is that Benjamin Franklin will go to france. And he is going to be the guy that will help convince france to come to the war on our side. While the british army is in this room in Benjamin Franklin 1778, is signing a peace treaty with france. That is changing the whole nature of the war. Because the british suddenly find they have to worry about a french navy. The United States does not have much of a navy to threaten the british fleet, but france does. The british have to worry about being invaded. Certainly guys like Benjamin Franklin working with marquita lafayette in france to get some invasion of england going. You will have to worry if you are Great Britain about islands in the caribbean. You will be fighting in asia, africa, you will be fighting all over the world. A lot of resources are not coming here to america, whi