Second Continental Congress Passes Declaration, Sending 200 Broadsides Across America
Updated
Updated · The Philadelphia Inquirer · Jul 4
Second Continental Congress Passes Declaration, Sending 200 Broadsides Across America
3 articles · Updated · The Philadelphia Inquirer · Jul 4
Summary
At 11 a.m. on July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, turning the colonies’ July 2 break with Britain into a formal public creed.
Roughly 200 broadsides were printed overnight by 29-year-old Philadelphia printer John Dunlap, whose shop stood near the State House and was poised to spread the text by dawn.
The final approval followed days of debate in which delegates revised Thomas Jefferson’s draft, while the July 2 independence vote was secured after Delaware’s Caesar Rodney rode 80 miles to break a deadlock.
By July 6, the declaration was appearing in newspapers and being read aloud to crowds and troops, including George Washington’s forces in New York, as bells, bonfires and public readings carried the news beyond Philadelphia.
The document’s adoption launched the American republic while exposing its contradictions, with its promise of equality emerging alongside slavery and a war that would test the new nation.