Once again the New York Public Library is displaying a handwritten version of the Declaration, written by Jefferson. Here is a post I wrote last year after visiting the Library:

Last evening, I had a thrilling experience. In a small, darkened room with the feel of a chapel inside the magnificent New York Public Library, I saw Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of his original draft of the Declaration of Independence. For me this was a “Grail Moment.” Setting aside all of Jefferson’s contradictions and human flaws, I found the experience of seeing these words in his own hand exhilarating.

We take them for granted, of course. But Jefferson gave full voice to the idea that we all possess “inalienable rights” –That we are “created equal.” That we have basic rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That governments exist to advance those human rights, and only with the “consent of the governed.”

The document is written on both sides of two pieces of paper. In his careful, flowing script, Jefferson included all of his original wording to show what the Congress in Philadelphia had changed, underscoring words and phrases that had been deleted. Those alterations, Jefferson, thought were “mutilations.” Distressed by the editing, he made these “fair copies” of his original some time after July 4th. (The document on display at the New York Public Library is one of only two known surviving copies.)

The most startling of these changes is a paragraph about what Jefferson calls “this execrable commerce” — slavery. Jefferson charged –rather ridiculously, of course– that King George III was responsible for the slave trade and was preventing American efforts to restrain that trade. The section was deleted completely. But it is striking to see Jefferson’s bold, block lettering when he describes:

an open market where MEN should be bought & sold

Yes, he was going home to a plantation completely dependent upon slave labor. But he clearly wanted to underscore his belief that slaves were MEN. The contradiction is stunning, troubling, and difficult to resolve.

As the nation approaches its celebration of Independence and the ideals of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” it is always crucial –and challenging– to remember that with those rights comes responsibility. We have traveled a remarkable road in 233 years. There is no more powerful symbol of that distance than the fact that an African American is President.

But we still have far to go until we all have secured all of those rights –equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness– for all of the people. Jefferson and his 55 fellow signers pledged their lives, fortunes and “sacred honor” in support of those fundamental human rights. Would we all be willing to say the same?

Here is a link to the New York Public Library Exhibit:
http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/declaration-independence-7

Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, a few names are familiar. Most Americans, if pressed, can probably name a true handful –Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John and Sam Adams, and John Hancock, he of the famous signature.

But among the other men who set their names on the Declaration –in essence, signing a death warrant for committing treason against the most powerful man on earth, King George III– are a collection of some extraordinary characters, who for the most part are forgotten. One of these “Forgotten Founders” is James Wilson, whose contributions to the creation of the United States of America were obscured by his  later disgrace.

Scottish by birth (in 1742), Wilson came to America in 1766. He soon found a place in the offices of John Dickinson, then one of the richest men in America. He also began to speculate in real estate, as many of the other Founding Fathers did. That would be his downfall.

In 1774, Wilson wrote a pamphlet called “Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament.” In it, he argued that the British Parliament had no authority over the colonies. This pamphlet was one of the first convincing legal arguments for American independence. Although it lacks Jefferson’s poetry, Wilson’s essay contained some ideas that have since become familiar:

All men are by nature, equal and free. No one has a right to authority over another without his consent…. The consequence is, that the happiness of the society is the first law of every society.

As a member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Congress, Wilson was an outspoken advocate of independence. But his constituents were more cautious. Then, Wilson met with some of the people who elected him, and it was agreed that he could vote for independence. He brought Pennsylvania into the “Yes” column. For that alone, he probably deserves more credit on July 4th.

Wilson next appears in history when a riot broke out in Philadelphia in the middle of the Revolution. Working class residents of the city were angry because of skyrocketing prices, due in part to hoarding of supplies by Philadelphia’s wealthy merchants. While about 30 of these merchants, including fellow Signer Robert Morris, were barricaded in Wilson’s Philadelphia home, an angry mob wheeled out a cannon and attacked the house in what was known as the “Fort Wilson Riot.” Wilson and the others were rescued by a detachment of Pennsylvania militiamen, but five people died in the fighting. They left that out of your textbook, I bet.

In the summer of 1787, Wilson became one of the central figures in the debates over the Constitution. With the Constitution ratified, Wilson then lobbied George Washington –a bit too aggressively for Washington’s taste–  for the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.  Washington instead appointed Wilson an associate justice of the first Supreme Court.

But Wilson, who had continued his land speculation and even had a Utopian vision of bringing in boatloads of immigrants to work new lands he was acquiring, got caught in one of America’s first economic meltdowns. While a sitting justice, he fell deeply into debt and was eventually sent to debtor’s prison –the first, and so far only member of the Supreme Court to go to jail.

Faced with more debt, he essentially went on the lam, ahead of creditors and the sheriff. He went to North Carolina where he was jailed a second time. After his release, Wilson contracted malaria, and died, penniless, of a stroke in August, 1798, an embarrassment to his friends and fellow Federalists. Buried in North Carolina, Wilson’s remains were later moved to Philadelphia’s Christ Churchyard.

Wilson had a hand in the creation of the Declaration and the Constitution  — he was a “Founder,” a “Signer” and a “Framer.” But in the end, he was disgraced and forgotten.

A portrait of Wilson from the University of Pennsylvania Law School: http://www.law.upenn.edu/about/history/photogallery/Insidegallery/wilson.html

And read more about the Revolutionary era in America’s Hidden History and Don’t Know Much About History.

–First of all, we celebrate the wrong day –as far as John Adams was concerned. The Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, actually voted on a resolution of independence on July 2d. John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that this day would be a day of history that would be marked with bonfires, church bells ringing and “illuminations” –or fireworks. He was right about all the other details but missed on the date. The date of the adoption of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence became fixed on the national calendar.

–Although Jefferson was the chief author of the Declaration, he was a member of a committee of five men charged with drafting a declaration that would explain why the colonies were separating from England. The others were  John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert Livingston of New York, who was not an advocate of independence.

–“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of ?“  Jefferson borrowed from a phrase used by other writers, including fellow Virginian George Mason, who had written about “life, liberty and the pursuit of property.”

Here is a link to Jefferson’s draft as it was presented to Franklin and Adams with some of his changes shown: http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/rough.htm

–Congress also made some changes. The most significant was the deletion of a paragraph in which Jefferson charged that King George III was responsible for the slave trade. That was dropped, Jefferson later noted, in deference to the men who owned slaves as well as those who made a great deal of money transporting them. Remember, some of the largest slave ports were in the northern colonies.

–The July 4th vote was not unanimous. The vote tally was by each state delegation. New York abstained on July 4 and voted to approve the Declaration on July 9th, making it unanimous. All thirteen colonies were now aboard.

–The signers didn’t sign –at least not on July 4th. Only two men actually signed the July 4th version: John Hancock, President of the Congress and Charles Thomson, serving as secretary. The actual signing ceremony took place on August 2, 1776. And even then, only 50 of the 56 signers were present to sign.

–The first celebration took place in Philadelphia on July 8th when the Declaration was read publicly for the first time. The “Liberty Bell,” a name that was not given to the famous symbol of freedom until the early 19th century, was rung. But it didn’t crack then. That came later. The words inscribed at the top of the Liberty Bell read, “Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.” And no, Taco Bell did not buy the rights to the Liberty Bell — that was a very successful April Fools Day joke. (Yes, they got me.)

–Words on back? Sorry no secret, invisible treasure map as in the movie National Treasure. But the words “Original Declaration of Independence, dated 4th July 1776″ are written on the back of the parchment version now displayed in the National Archives.