[Illustration]
The Declaration of Independence is here reproduced in miniature--not
for reading purposes; that would be too severe a tax on the
eyesight--but simply to show the form and style of the historic
Document. The original of this Document is preserved in the Department
of State, Washington, carefully protected against light and air.
As may be seen, the Declaration bears the date July 4, 1776, and this
is accepted as the Birthday of Independence. On July 3rd and 4th the
Declaration was debated and the convention voted in favor of it, and
authorized the presiding officer, John Hancock, and the secretary,
Charles Thomson, to sign the Document. There was no single hour during
which all signed. It was a matter of weeks. All came to it finally,
for, as Benjamin Franklin shrewdly observed, “We must all hang
together, or else we shall all hang separately.”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 10, SERIAL No. 158
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: IN INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PA.