Compiled & Edited by

MICHAEL T. MOONEY & ANDREW LOWY

Paper Mill's Adopt-A-School Project is generously supported by:
Bank of America (Young Critics Program), Horizon Foundation for NJ (Phillipsburg
High School), The Provident Bank Foundation, Schering-Plough Foundation,
JPMorgan Chase Foundation (Hoboken High School), C.R. Bard
Foundation, Nordstrom, PSE&G, and FirstEnergy
Foundation.
Additional major support for Paper Mill's Education Outreach is provided by: The Geraldine
R. Dodge Foundation, Shirley Aidekman-Kaye, and The Mall at Short Hills. Paper Mills
programs are made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the
Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by
funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Paper Mill Playhouse is grateful for
generous contributions from numerous corporations, foundations, and individuals.

 1776: PRODUCTION HISTORY

Sherman Edwards, who wrote the music and lyrics for 1776, was a high school history
teacher who, while doing research about the American Revolution, realized that the
behind the scenes drama that went into the creation of the Declaration of
Independence could be very interesting on the musical stage. At the age of forty, he
decided to spend all of his time creating what would become 1776. For seven years,
Edwards devoted himself to crafting the songs for the show. He soon realized that he
needed a playwright to clarify the characters and their relationships. He was rejected by
every book writer; no one thought this musical was a good idea. This was merely a
bump in the road for Edwards, who decided to go ahead and write a draft of the book
himself. He spent his days doing research in New York, Philadelphia, and Morristown, New Jersey. Five years
later, he finally had a draft of the musical.
Once again, Edwards met with skepticism; this time from producers who thought the musical too patriotic in a
time where the Vietnam War was questioning many of our American values. Luckily for Edwards, there was one
producer who understood what he was trying to achieve. Stuart Ostrow thought the musical was extremely timely
and immediately decided to produce the show. The one request he made was to enlist a book writer help with the
story. Ostrow went to Peter Stone, who years before had actually refused Edwards offer to write the book. After
hearing the score again, he realized that the piece was in fact timely and very entertaining. He performed
extensive research on the real life figures and was able to create a story that is very true to the real life events.
1776 had its pre-Broadway tryout in New Haven, Connecticut, and was greeted with
lackluster reviews. The show had the disadvantage of having no major stars in the cast.
After some rewrites, the show was brought to Washington, D.C., and received much
better reviews. 1776 opened at the 46th Street Theater (now the Richard Rodgers) on
Broadway on March 16, 1969, to rave reviews and lines around the block to buy
tickets. Critics embraced the authors use of daring theatrical elements like the absence
of a female chorus, no intermission and the presence of some scenes that had no music
at all. The Broadway production starred William Daniels as John Adams, Ken Howard
as Thomas Jefferson, Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin, and Betty Buckley (Rose
in Paper Mill Playhouses Gypsy) as Martha Jefferson. The show ran for three years on
Broadway for a total of 1,217 performances and won the 1969 Tony Awards for Best
Musical and Best Director.
After the initial success of 1776, the production was asked to give a special performance in the East Room of the
White House for President Richard Nixon. Initially, the White House wanted the authors to cut three of the songs
that had antiwar sentiments but Stuart Ostrow refused and they eventually let the songs stay in the show. On
February 22, 1970, 1776 became the first musical to be performed in the White House in its entirety. The
President and his guests were said to have loved the show!
A film version, released in 1972, was written by Peter Stone and produced by Jack
Warner. The film was closely adapted from the stage musical, with the omission of a
few songs. It also starred much of the original Broadway cast. In celebration of the
United States bicentennial, the stage musical went on a forty six city tour between 1975
and 1976. 1776 was revived on Broadway by the Roundabout Theater Company in
1997. The production was directed by Scott Ellis and starred Michael Cumpsty, Brent
Spiner and Gregg Edelman (Father in Paper Mill Playhouses Meet Me In St. Louis).
This production marks the third time 1776 has been seen on the Paper Mill stage. The first production was
performed soon after the original Broadway production closed in 1972. The second production, during the 198889 season, was directed by Robert Johanson and starred Brent Barrett, George Dvorsky, and Robert Cuccioli, who
plays John Dickinson in this all-new production.

 ABOUT THE AUTHORS: SHERMAN EDWARDS

SHERMAN EDWARDS, the composer and lyricist for 1776, was born in New York City in
1919. He was raised in Weequahic, New Jersey, located right outside of Newark and he
attended Weequahic High School. He graduated from New York University with a B.A. in
history and later did graduate work in history at Cornell University. Following his studies,
Edwards served in the Air Force during World War II. After the war, he taught American
history at James Monroe High School in New York City.
At the same time, Edwards found some success as a songwriter and occasionally as an actor.
He wrote many hit songs during the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of which were top ten hits. A few of
these include Wonderful, Wonderful, See You in September, Johnny Get Angry, and Broken-Hearted
Melody. As a pianist with jazz roots, he played in the bands of such luminaries as Benny Goodman,
Tommy Dorsey, and Louis Armstrong. One of his most famous jobs was composing film scores for three
Elvis Presley movies (Kid Galahad, Flaming Star and G.I. Blues). He appeared as an actor in My Sister
Eileen (which later became the musical Wonderful Town) and the revue Pins and Needles.
It was as a history teacher, though, that he conceived of a musical that would deal with the Second
Continental Congress and the events leading to the creation of Declaration of Independence. 1776, for which
he won a 1969 Tony Award, was his only Broadway score. Edwards died of a heart attack at the age of 61 in
a friends home in Manhattan. He had lived the last years of his life in Boonton, New Jersey.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: PETER STONE

PETER STONE, the librettist for 1776, was born on February 27, 1930, in Los Angeles. His
father was a successful producer and screenwriter at Fox Studios. After high school, he went
to the east coast to obtain a degree at Bard College and an MFA from the Yale School of
Drama. Once he had his two degrees, he went to Paris for several years to serve as a writer
and newsreader for CBS radio and television.
In the early 1960s, Stone returned to America to write for television and film. In 1962, he won an Emmy for
an episode for the The Defenders. Later that year, he won a Writers Guild of America Award for his
television play The Benefactor. In 1967, he adapted George Bernard Shaws play Androcles and the Lion
into a television musical with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and a cast headed by Noel Coward.
Stones screenwriting career started off with a bang with a film entitled Charade (1963). Directed by
Stanley Donen and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, the film won the Mystery Writers of Americas
Edgar Award and introduced Stone as dynamic writer for the screen. The success of Charade led Cary Grant
to ask Stone to write his next film Father Goose (1964), a World War II comedy. The film won the 1965
Oscar for Best Screenplay. His next film was Mirage (1965), a mystery starring Gregory Peck, Diane Baker
and the up-and-coming Walter Matthau. Some of Stones other film work include the comic thriller
Arabesque (1966), The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968), a war comedy starring Paul Newman, and the film
adaptation of the musical Sweet Charity (1969).
Although Stone is recognized as a television and screenwriting talent, he is best known as a musical theatre
book writer. His first musical to be produced on Broadway was the massive failure Kean (1961), based on
the life of 19th century actor Edmund Kean. His next musical, Skyscraper (1965), was adapted from Elmer
Rices play Dream Girl and ran 248 performances on Broadway. Two years later, he had his first Broadway
success with the book for 1776, for which he won his first Tony Award.
Following 1776, Stone wrote the books for many musicals with various levels of success. His adaptation of
Billy Wilders classic movie Some Like It Hot into the musical Sugar (1972) was not well received, but ran

for 505 performances. He worked with Richard Rodgers on the book for the Bible-based musical Two by
Two (1970) starring Danny Kaye. In 1981, Stone worked with the team of John Kander and Fred Ebb on a
musical adaptation of the Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn film Woman of the Year (1942). The show,
starring Lauren Bacall, won Stone his second Tony Award.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Stone gained a reputation as a show doctor. This is a person outside of the
production staff brought in to help with script revisions or other changes. The musical My One and Only
(1983) received horrible reviews during its out of town tryout in Boston, so the production brought Stone in
to write an entirely new book. The show went on to be a hit on Broadway, running 767 performances and
nominated for nine Tony Awards (winning three). Stone was also famously a show doctor to another
Tommy Tune musical, Grand Hotel (1989).
One of his last Broadway hits was The Will Rogers Follies (1991), which he wrote with Cy Coleman and the
team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The show won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Musical. His next
musical, written with composer/lyricist Maury Yeston, was Titanic (1997). This show won all of the five
Tony Awards it was nominated for, including Stones third Tony for his book. In 1998, he adapted the book
of Annie Get Your Gun for a revival starring Bernadette Peters. He was also the longest tenured President of
the Dramatist Guild, serving for 18 years from 1981-1999.
Peter Stone died on April 26, 2003, in a Manhattan hospital of pulmonary fibrosis. At the time of his death,
he was working on two musicals. The first was Curtains, a backstage musical written with John Kander and
Fred Ebb. Following Stones death, Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) was brought in to finish
the book. The show made it to Broadway in March 2007 and ran 511 performances. The second musical
was Death Takes a Holiday, with a score by Maury Yeston. For this show book writer Thomas Meehan was
brought in to finish the job. The show will have a reading by the Roundabout Theater Company this spring.
Peter Stone will be remembered as the first writer to have won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award.

Peter Stone with original cast members Ken Howard, Howard Da Silva and William Daniels.

 HISTORICAL NOTE BY THE AUTHORS

by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards
photos from the original 1969 Broadway production

The first question we are asked by those who have seen - or read - 1776
is invariably: Is it true? Did it really happen that way? The answer is:
Yes. Certainly a few changes have been made in order to fulfill basic
dramatic tenets. To quote a European dramatist friend of ours, God
writes lousy theater. In other words, reality is seldom artistic, orderly,
or dramatically satisfying; life rarely provides a sound second act, and its
climaxes usually have not been adequately prepared for. Therefore, in
historical drama, a number of small licenses are almost always taken
with strictest fact, and those in 1776 are enumerated in this addendum.
But none of them, either separately or in accumulation, has done
anything to alter the historical truth of the characters, the times, or the
events of American independence.
THINGS ALTERED: Of the two main alterations that were made, one
was in the interest of dramatic construction, the other for the purpose of
preserving dramatic unity. First, the Declaration, though reported back
to Congress for amendments and revisions prior to the vote on
independence on July 2, was not actually debated and approved until after that vote. However, had this
schedule been preserved in the play, the audiences interest in the debate would already have been spent.
Second, the Declaration was not signed on July 4, 1776, the date it was proclaimed to the citizenry of the
thirteen colonies. It was actually signed over a period of several months, many of the signers having not
been present at the time of its ratification. The greatest number signed on August 2, but one, Matthew
Thornton of New Hampshire, did not even enter Congress until November 4, and the name of Colonel
Thomas McKean of Delaware, probably the last to sign, had not yet appeared on the document by the middle
of January 1777. It seems fairly obvious, however, that the depiction of a July 4 signing, like the famous
Pine-Savage engraving of this non-event, provides the occasion with form and allows the proper emotional
punctuation to the entire spectacle.
THINGS SURMISED: Because Secretary Thomson did not keep a proper record of the debates in
Congress, and because other chronicles are incomplete in certain key areas, a small number of educated
suppositions had to be made in order to complete the story. These were based on consistencies of character,
ends logically connected to means, and the absence of other possible explanations. It is unknown, for
instance, whether Richard Henry Lee was persuaded to go to the Virginia House of Burgesses in order to
secure a motion for independence that could be introduced in Congress, or if he volunteered on his own.
Certainly Adams was getting nowhere with his own efforts; he had, on twenty-three separate occasions,
introduced the subject of independence to his fellows in Congress, and each time it had failed to be
considered. It was also true that whenever an issue needed respectability, the influence of a Virginian was
brought to bear. (Virginia was the first colony, and its citizens were regarded as a sort of American
aristocracy, an honor that was not betrayed by their leaders. The Virginian Washington was given command
of the army, and the Virginian Jefferson was given the assignment of writing the Declaration.) Certainly
Franklin would have delighted in appealing to Lees vanity and deflating Adams ego at one and the same
time, as Scene 2 of the play suggests. But the actual sequence of these events is unknown. And when Lee
returned from Virginia (in Scene 3) a transcript of the debate in Congress on his motion for independence
was never recorded. But the positions of individual Congressmen are known, and it was possible to glean
phrases, attitudes and convictions from the many letters, memoirs, and other papers that exist in abundance,
in order to reconstruct a likely facsimile of this debate. (Stick fights, such as the one occurring between
Adams and Dickinson in this scene, were common during Congressional debate, and though there is no

report of this particular one, the sight of the two antagonists whacking away at each other certainly would
have surprised no one.) Similarly, a record of the debate on the Declaration was never kept. But in this case
there was even more to go on. Jefferson himself, in his autobiography, provided two versions of the
documentas originally written and as finally approved. Who was responsible for each individual change is
not know, but in most instances convincing conclusions are not too hard to draw. McKean, a proud Scot,
surely would have objected to the charge of Scotch & foreign mercenaries [sent] to invade and deluge us in
blood. And John Witherspoon of New Jersey, a clergyman and the Congressional chaplain, no doubt would
have supported the addition of the phrase
with a firm Reliance on the Protection of
Divine Providence, which had not been
present in Jeffersons original draft. Also,
Edward Rutledge must be charged with
leading the fight against the condemnation of
slavery, being the chief proponent of that
practice in Congress. And the exchange
between Jefferson and Dickinson, occurring in
our version of this debate, includes lines
written by Jefferson on other occasions, most
notably: The right to be free comes from
Nature.
The conversion of James Wilson of Pennsylvania from the Nay to the Yea column at the last minute (in
Scene 7) is an event without any surviving explanation. All that is definitely known is that Wilson, a former
law student of Dickinsons and certainly under his influence in Congress, as his previous voting record
testifies, suddenly changed his position on independence and, as a result, is generally credited with casting
the vote that decided this issue. But why? A logical solution to this mystery was found when we imagined
one fear he might have possessed that would have been stronger than his fear of Dickinsons wrath - the fear
of going down in history as the man who single-handedly prevented American independence. Such a position
would have been totally consistent with his well-known penchant for caution.
The final logical conjecture we made concerned the discrepancy between the appearance of the word
inalienable in Jeffersons version of the Declaration and its reappearance as unalienable in the printed
copy that is now in universal use. This could have been a misprint, but it might, too, have been the result of
interference by Adams (he had written it as unalienable in a copy of the Declaration he had drafted in his
own hand), who believed that this seldom-used spelling was correct. There is no doubt that the meddlesome
Massachusettesian, a Harvard graduate, was not above speaking to Mr. Dunlap, the printer. It is also
consistent with both mens behavior that Adams and Jefferson should have disagreed on this matter, as they
did on most. They were to become bitter enemies for much of their lives, only to make up when they had
both survived to extreme old age. Both lived long enough to be invited (by Adams son, John Quincy, who
was then occupying the White House) to the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the Declaration of
Independence. But on that very date, July 4, 1826, exactly a half-century later to the day, both of these
gigantic figures, Jefferson at eighty-three, Adams at ninety-one - each believing and finding solace in the
thought that the other was attending the jubilee - died. Surely this was one of the greatest coincidences in all
history and one which never would be believed if included in a play.
THINGS ADDED: The three instances of elements that were added to the story of American independence
were created in the interest of satisfying the musical-comedy form. Again, it must be stressed that none of
them interferes with historic truth in any way.
The first concerns Martha Jeffersons visit to Philadelphia in Scene 4. While it is true that Jefferson missed
her to distraction, more than enough to effect an unscheduled reunion, it is believed that he journeyed to
Virginia to see her. The license of having her come to see him, at Adams instigation, stemmed from our
desire to show something of the young Jeffersons personal life without destroying the unity of setting.

Second, in Scene 5 of the play, Adams, Franklin, and Chase are shown leaving
for New Brunswick, New Jersey, for an inspection of the military. This
particular trip did not actually take place, though a similar one was made to
New York after the vote on independence, during which Adams and Franklin
had to share a single bed in an inn. Originally the New Jersey junket was
included in the play, represented by two separate scenes (one in an inn,
showing the sleeping arrangements mentioned, the other on the military
training grounds, showing inspection of a ragtag collection of provincial
militiamen and irregulars who could do nothing right until a flock of ducks
flew by; the mens hunger molded them into a smoothly operating unit).
These scenes were removed, however, during the out-of-town tryout, in the
interests of the over-all length of the play and because they were basically
cinemagraphic in concept. Needless to say, both should appear in the filmed
version of 1776. [ed. They dont.]
And third, the account of General Washingtons dusty young courier, at the end of Scene 5, of a battle he had
witnessed, while an actual description of the village green during and after the Battle of Lexington, is a
wholly constructed moment, designed to illustrate the feelings and experiences of the Americans outside
Congress, who were deeply influenced by the decisions made inside the Congress. One further note: The
tally board used throughout the play to record each vote did not exist in the actual chamber in Philadelphia. It
has been included in order to clarify the positions of the thirteen colonies at any given moment, a device
allowing the audience to follow the parliamentary action without confusion.
THINGS DELETED: Certain elements that are historically true have been left out or removed from the play
for one of three separate reasons. The first of these was the embarrassment of riches; there are just too many
choice bits of information to include in one, two, or even a dozen plays. The fact that Franklin often entered
the congressional chamber in a sedan chair carried by convicts, for instance; or that, on several occasions,
Indians in full regalia would appear before the Congress, petitioning for one thing or another, and
accompanied by their interpreter, a full-blooded Indian who spoke with a flawless Oxford accent. Then there
was the advisability of cutting down on the number of Congressmen appearing in the play in the interests of
preserving clarity and preventing overcrowding. There is, after all, a limit to an audiences ability to
assimilate (and keep separate) a large number of characters, as well as the physical limits of any given stage
production. For this reason, several of the lesser known (and least contributory) Congressmen were
eliminated altogether, and, in a few cases, two or more were combined into a single character. James
Wilson, for example, contains a few of the qualities of his fellow Pennsylvanian, John Morton. And John
Adams is, at times, a composite of himself and his cousin Sam Adams, also of Massachusetts. But by far the
most frustrating reason for deleting a historical fact was that the audiences would never have believed it. The
best example of this is John Adams reply (it was actually Cousin Sam who said it) to Franklins willingness
to drop the anti-slavery clause from the Declaration. Mark me, Franklin, he now says in Scene 7, if we
give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us. But the complete line, spoken in July, 1776, was If we
give in on this issue, there will be trouble a hundred years hence: posterity will never forgive us. And
audiences would never forgive us. For who could blame them for believing that the phrase was the authors
invention, stemming from the eternal wisdom of hindsight? After all, the astonishing prediction missed by
only a few years.
THINGS REARRANGED: Some historical data have been edited
dramatically without altering their validity or factuality. The first
example of this would be the plays treatment of Adams relationship
with his wife, Abigail. Two separate theatrical conventions have been
employed; the selection and conversion of sections of their actual
letters, written to each other during this period of their separation, into
dialogue; and the placing of them in close physical proximity though

they remain, in reality, over three hundred miles apart. The notion for this last device sprang, oddly, from a
line in one of these same letters: Adams was complaining about their continued separation and finally
pleaded, Oh, if I could only annihilate time and space! (The description of scenes, at the beginning of the
play, defines these meetings by listing the area of dramatic action as certain reaches of John Adams
mind.) The exchanges, spoken and sung, between John and Abigail Adams are, as has been stated, the
result of distributing, as dialogue, sections and phrases from various letters. The list of their childrens
diseases, the constant requests for saltpeter for gunpowder (and the counter request for pins), the use of the
tender salutation Dearest friend, the catalogue of Abigails faults, the news of the farm in Braintree failing
- even certain song lyrics transferred intact (I live like a num in a cloister and Write to me with
sentimental effusion) - all these were edited and rearranged in an attempt to establish a dramatically
satisfying relationship.
This same process was used to construct George Washingtons dispatches from
the field. Literally dozens were selected, from which individual lines were
borrowed and then patched together in order to form the five communiqus that
now appear in the play. Therefore, though the dispatches as now constructed
were not written by the Commander-in-Chief, each sentence within them is
either an actual quotation (O how I wish I had never seen the Continental
Army! I would have done better to retire to the back country and live in a
wigwam) or paraphrase, or comes from a first-hand report (the final line of the
last dispatch, but dear God! What brave men I shall lose before this business
ends! was spoken by Washington in the presence of his adjutant, who later
reported it). And finally, John Adams extraordinary prophecy, made on July 3,
1776, describing the way Independence Day would be celebrated by future
generations of Americans and written in a letter to his wife on that date, has
been paraphrased and adapted into lyric form for the song Is Anybody There? sung by Adams in Scene 7.
The original lines are: I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great
anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to
God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells,
bonfires, and illumination, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.
You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and
treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these States. Yet, through all
the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the
means. And that posterity will triumph in that days transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust
God we shall not. We have attempted, in the paragraphs above, to answer the question, Is it true?

The final scene of the play shows the members of Congress being called individually to come forward in order to sign
the Declaration of Independence. The characters' final positions are an approximation of John Trumbull's famous
painting. Far fewer of the actual number of delegates who were in Congress are represented in the play,
but the resemblance to the painting is unmistakable.

 CAST OF CHARACTERS
John Hancock: President of the 2nd Continental
Congress. First to sign the Declaration with a
very large signature so that fat [King]
Georgecan read it without his glasses!
Dr. Josiah Bartlett: New Hampshire delegate. In
favor of independence.

Caesar Rodney: Delaware delegate who has skin

cancer and leaves his death bed to vote. Favors
independence.
Colonel Thomas McKean: Delaware delegate.
Scottish heritage. Favors independence.
George Read: Delaware delegate who sides with
Dickinson.

John Adams: Massachusetts delegate. A man

found to be obnoxious and disliked [his own
words] by many members of Congress. The
leading advocate for separation from England.

Samuel Chase: Maryland delegate. Prefers

eating to debating. Changes his allegiances
during final vote.

Stephen Hopkins: Rhode Island Delegate. He

would prefer to be found at all times with a
tankard of rum in his hand.

Richard Henry Lee: Virginia delegate who

returns home to secure a resolution proclaiming
independence.

Roger Sherman: Connecticut delegate. Sides in

favor of independence. A member of the
committee formed to write the Declaration.

Thomas Jefferson: Virginia delegate who writes

the initial draft of the Declaration. Eventually, he
approves all changes requested by the delegates.

Lewis Morris: New York delegate. Abstains

courteously on every vote.

Edward Rutledge: Delegate from South

Carolina. Youngest member of Congress, he leads
the opposition to the Declaration because it
advocates the abolition of slavery.

Robert Livingston: New York delegate. A

member of the committee formed to write the
Declaration.
Reverend John Witherspoon: Delegate from
New Jersey. Witherspoon argues for, and wins,
the inclusion of a reference to the God in the
Declaration.

Joseph Hewes: North Carolina delegate. Sides

with Rutledge on the slavery issue.
Dr. Lyman Hall: Georgia delegate. Independent
thinker, who weighs all issues before giving his
support.

Benjamin Franklin: Pennsylvania delegate, who,

along with Adams, leads those in favor of
breaking away from England.

Charles Thomson: Congressional Secretary.

John Dickinson: Pennsylvania delegate.

Advocates reconciliation with England and King
George III. A fierce opponent of Adams.

Courier: Brings dispatches from General

Washington.

James Wilson: Pennsylvania delegate. Casts the

final vote to approve the Declaration because he
wishes not to be known as the man who
prevented American independence.

Andrew McNair: Custodian and bell-ringer.

Abigail Adams: Wife of John Adams. Not

present in Philadelphia, but appears to her
husband through letters and fantasies.
Martha Jefferson: Wife of Thomas Jefferson.
Summoned to Philadelphia when Jefferson
develops writers block.

10

 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: A HISTORY

Nations come into being in many ways.
Military rebellion, civil strife, acts of
heroism, acts of treachery, a thousand greater
and lesser clashes between defenders of the
old order and supporters of the new -- all
these occurrences and more have marked the
emergences of new nations, large and small.
The birth of our own nation included them
all. That birth was unique, not only in the
immensity of its later impact on the course of
world history and the growth of democracy,
but also because so many of the threads in
our national history run back through time to
come together in one place, in one time, and
in one document: the Declaration of
Independence.

MOVING TOWARD INDEPENDENCE

The clearest call for independence up to the summer of 1776 came in Philadelphia on June 7. On that date in
session in the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall), the Continental Congress heard Richard
Henry Lee of Virginia read his resolution beginning: "Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and
that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally
dissolved."
The Lee Resolution was an expression of what was already beginning to happen
throughout the colonies. When the Second Continental Congress, which was essentially
the government of the United States from 1775 to 1788, first met in May 1775, King
George III (left) had not replied to the petition for redress of grievances that he had been
sent by the First Continental Congress. The Congress gradually took on the
responsibilities of a national government. In June 1775 the Congress established the
Continental Army as well as a continental currency. By the end of July of that year, it
created a post office for the "United Colonies."
In August 1775 a royal proclamation declared that the King's American subjects were "engaged in open and
avowed rebellion." Later that year, Parliament passed the American Prohibitory Act, which made all
American vessels and cargoes forfeit to the Crown. And in May 1776 the Congress learned that the King had
negotiated treaties with German states to hire mercenaries to fight in America. The weight of these actions
combined to convince many Americans that the mother country was treating the colonies as a foreign entity.
One by one, the Continental Congress continued to cut the colonies' ties to Britain. The Privateering
Resolution, passed in March 1776, allowed the colonists "to fit out armed vessels to cruize [sic] on the
enemies of these United Colonies." On April 6, 1776, American ports were opened to commerce with other
nations, an action that severed the economic ties fostered by the Navigation Acts. A "Resolution for the
Formation of Local Governments" was passed on May 10, 1776.
At the same time, more of the colonists themselves were becoming convinced of the inevitability of
independence. Thomas Paine's Common Sense, published in January 1776, was sold by the thousands. By

11

the middle of May 1776, eight colonies had decided that they would support independence. On May 15,
1776, the Virginia Convention passed a resolution that "the delegates appointed to represent this colony in
General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and
independent states."
It was in keeping with these instructions that Richard Henry Lee (left), on June 7, 1776,
presented his resolution. There were still some delegates, however, including those bound
by earlier instructions, who wished to pursue the path of reconciliation with Britain. On
June 11 consideration of the Lee Resolution was postponed by a vote of seven colonies to
five, with New York abstaining. Congress then recessed for 3 weeks. The tone of the debate
indicated that at the end of that time the Lee Resolution would be adopted. Before Congress
recessed, therefore, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a statement presenting to
the world the colonies' case for independence.

THE COMMITTEE OF FIVE

The committee consisted of two New England men, John
Adams of Massachusetts and Roger Sherman of Connecticut;
two men from the Middle Colonies, Benjamin Franklin of
Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York; and
one southerner, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. In 1823
Jefferson wrote that the other members of the committee
"unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the
draught [sic]. I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to
the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin
and Mr. Adams requesting their corrections. . . I then wrote a
fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them,
unaltered to the Congress." (If Jefferson did make a "fair
copy," incorporating the changes made by Franklin and
Adams, it has not been preserved. It may have been the copy
that was amended by the Congress and used for printing, but in any case, it has not survived. Jefferson's
rough draft, however, with changes made by Franklin and Adams, as well as Jefferson's own notes of
changes by the Congress, is housed at the Library of Congress.)
Jefferson's account reflects three stages in the life of the Declaration: the document originally written by
Jefferson; the changes to that document made by Franklin and Adams, resulting in the version that was
submitted by the Committee of Five to the Congress; and the version that was eventually adopted.
On July 1, 1776, Congress reconvened. The following day, the Lee Resolution for independence was adopted
by 12 of the 13 colonies, New York not voting. Immediately afterward, the Congress began to consider the
Declaration. Adams and Franklin had made only a few changes before the committee submitted the
document. The discussion in Congress resulted in some alterations and deletions, but the basic document
remained Jefferson's. The process of revision continued through all of July 3 and into the late morning of
July 4. Then, at last, church bells rang out over Philadelphia; the Declaration had been officially adopted.
The Declaration of Independence is made up of five distinct parts: the introduction; the preamble; the body,
which can be divided into two sections; and a conclusion. The introduction states that this document will
"declare" the "causes" that have made it necessary for the American colonies to leave the British Empire.
Having stated in the introduction that independence is unavoidable, even necessary, the preamble sets out
principles that were already recognized to be "self-evident" by most 18th- century Englishmen, closing with
the statement that "a long train of abuses and usurpations . . . evinces a design to reduce [a people] under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new

12

Guards for their future security." The first section of the body of the Declaration gives evidence of the "long
train of abuses and usurpations" heaped upon the colonists by King George III. The second section of the
body states that the colonists had appealed in vain to their "British brethren" for a redress of their grievances.
Having stated the conditions that made independence necessary and having shown that those conditions
existed in British North America, the Declaration concludes that "these United Colonies are, and of Right
ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally
dissolved."
Although Congress had adopted the Declaration submitted by the Committee of Five, the
committee's task was not yet completed. Congress had also directed that the committee
supervise the printing of the adopted document. The first printed copies of the
Declaration of Independence were turned out from the shop of John Dunlap (right),
official printer to the Congress. After the Declaration had been adopted, the committee
took to Dunlap the manuscript document, possibly Jefferson's "fair copy" of his rough
draft. On the morning of July 5, copies were dispatched by members of Congress to
various assemblies, conventions, and committees of safety as well as to the commanders
of Continental troops. Also on July 5, a copy of the printed version of the approved
Declaration was inserted into the "rough journal" of the Continental Congress for July 4. The text was
followed by the words "Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President. Attest.
Charles Thomson, Secretary." It is not known how many copies John Dunlap printed on his busy night of
July 4. There are 24 copies known to exist of what is commonly referred to as "the Dunlap broadside," 17
owned by American institutions, 2 by British institutions, and 5 by private owners.

THE ENGROSSED DECLARATION

On July 9 the action of Congress was officially approved by the New York Convention. All 13 colonies had
now signified their approval. On July 19, therefore, Congress was able to order that the Declaration be "fairly
engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile [sic] of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United
States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress."
Engrossing is the process of preparing an official document in a large, clear hand.
Timothy Matlack (left) was probably the engrosser of the Declaration. He was a
Pennsylvanian who had assisted the Secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson, in his
duties for over a year and who had written out George Washington's commission as
commanding general of the Continental Army. Matlack set to work with pen, ink,
parchment, and practiced hand, and finally, on August 2, the journal of the Continental
Congress records that "The declaration of independence being engrossed and compared at
the table was signed." One of the most widely held misconceptions about the Declaration
is that it was signed on July 4, 1776, by all the delegates in attendance.
John Hancock, the President of the Congress, was the first to sign the sheet of parchment measuring 24 by
29 inches. He used a bold signature centered below the text. In accordance with prevailing custom, the
other delegates began to sign at the right below the text, their signatures arranged according to the
geographic location of the states they represented. New Hampshire, the northernmost state, began the list,
and Georgia, the southernmost, ended it. Eventually 56 delegates signed, although all were not present on
August 2. Among the later signers were Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean,
and Matthew Thornton, who found that he had no room to sign with the other New Hampshire delegates. A
few delegates who voted for adoption of the Declaration on July 4 were never to sign in spite of the July 19
order of Congress that the engrossed document "be signed by every member of Congress." Nonsigners
included John Dickinson, who clung to the idea of reconciliation with Britain, and Robert R. Livingston, one
of the Committee of Five, who thought the Declaration was premature.

13

 EDITING THOMAS JEFFERSONS DECLARATION

Thomas Jefferson delivered a rough draft of The Declaration of Independence to the
delegates of the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776. It did not take very
long before objections arose and the delegates began requesting, suggesting and
demanding changes. A number of these changes have been worked into the libretto of
1776 by Peter Stone. Ultimately, 86 emendations were made to the document before it
was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Arguably, the most
significant deletion/emendation to Jeffersons document concerns the section focusing
on the abolition of slavery. The following is a transcript of Jeffersons original and the
changes, deletions, additions that were made. Insertions are presented in CAPITAL
LETTERS. All deletions are printed in bold and enclosed in brackets.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds
which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with CERTAIN [inherent and] unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends,
it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on
such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, [begun at a distinguished period and]
pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. -Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them
to ALTER [expunge] their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is
a history of REPEATED [unremitting] injuries and usurpations, ALL HAVING [among which appears no
solitary fact to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, but all have] in direct object the establishment of
an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world [for the truth of
which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood].
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their
operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to
them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the
depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly [and continually], for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state
remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

14

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for
naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has OBSTRUCTED [suffered] the administration of justice, BY [totally to cease in some of
these states] refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made [our] judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount
and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, [by a self-assumed power] and sent hither swarms of
officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies [and ships of war] without the consent of
our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions, and
unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation; for quartering large
bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; f or cutting off our trade with all parts of the
world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us IN MANY CASES, of the benefits of
trial by jury; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses; for abolishing the free system
of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its
boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in
these COLONIES [states]; for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering
fundamentally the forms of our governments; for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, BY DECLARING US OUT OF HIS PROTECTION, AND
WAGING WAR AGAINST US [withdrawing his governors, and declaring us out of his allegiance and
protection].
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our
people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death,
desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy SCARCELY
PARALLELED IN THE MOST BARBAROUS AGES, AND TOTALLY unworthy the head of a civilized
nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their
country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has EXCITED DOMESTIC INSURRECTION AMONG US, AND HAS endeavored to bring on
the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions [of existence].
[He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens, with the allurements of
forfeiture and confiscation of our property.
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and
liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into
slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation hither. This
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of
Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has
prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this
execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is
now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has
deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former
crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes which he urges them o commit
against the LIVES of another.]
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our
repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

15

A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the
ruler of a FREE people [who mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe that the hardiness of one
man adventured, within the short compass of twelve years only, to lay a foundation so broad and so
undisguised for tyranny over a people fostered and fixed in principles of freedom].
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to
time of attempts by their legislature to extend AN UNWARRANTABLE [a] jurisdiction over US [these our
states]. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here, [no one of
which could warrant so strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expense of our blood and
treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our
several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for
perpetual league and amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our
constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and,] we HAVE appealed to their native justice
and magnanimity, AND WE HAVE CONJURED THEM BY [as well as to] the ties of our common kindred
to disavow these usurpations, which, WOULD INEVITABLY [were likely to] interrupt our connections and
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. WE MUST,
THEREFORE, [and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of
removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free election, reestablished them in power. At this very time too, they are permitting their chief magistrate to send
over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and destroy
us. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce
forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and hold them
as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have a free and a great
people together; but a communication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their dignity. Be
it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness and to glory is open to us, too. We will tread it apart
from them, and] acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our [eternal] separation, AND HOLD THEM
AS WE HOLD THE REST OF MANKIND, ENEMIES IN WAR, IN PEACE FRIENDS!
**We, therefore, the representatives of the
United States of America, in General Congress,
assembled, do, in the name, and by the authority
of the good people of these [states reject and
renounce all allegiance and subjection to the
kings of Great Britain and all others who may
hereafter claim by, through or under them; we
utterly dissolve all political connection which
may heretofore have subsisted between us and
the people or parliament of Great Britain: and
finally we do assert and declare these colonies to
be free and independent states,] and that as free
and independent states, they have full power to
levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances,
establish commerce, and to do all other acts and
things which independent states may of right do.
And for the support of this declaration,
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes and our sacred honor.
** Jeffersons version is on the left. The final adopted text is in the
box on the right.

**We, therefore, the representatives of the

United States of America in General Congress
assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the
name, and by the authority of the good people of
these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that
these united colonies are, and of right ought to be
free and independent states; that they are
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown,
and that all political connections between them
and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be,
totally dissolved; and that as free and
independent states, they have full power to levy
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish
commerce, and to do all acts and things which
independent states
may of right do.
And for the support of this declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of divine
providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

16

 SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Names in bold appear as characters in 1776. Italicized names are not characters in the play.
NAME
Adams, John
Adams, Samuel
Bartlett, Josiah
Braxton, Carter
Carroll, Charles
Chase, Samuel
Clark, Abraham
Clymer, George
Ellery, William
Floyd, William
Franklin, Benjamin
Gerry, Elbridge
Gwinnett, Button
Hall, Lyman
Hancock, John
Harrisson, Benjamin
Hart, John
Hewes, Joseph
Heyward Jr., Thomas
Hooper, William
Hopkins, Stephen
Hopkinson, Francis
Huntington, Samuel
Jefferson, Thomas
Lee, F. Lightfoot
Lee, Richard Henry
Lewis, Francis
Livingston, Philip
Lynch Jr., Thomas
McKean, Thomas
Middleton, Arthur
Morris, Lewis
Morris, Robert
Morton, John
Nelson Jr., Thomas
Paca, William
Paine, Robert Treat
Penn, John
Read, George
Rodney, Caesar
Ross, George
Rush, Benjamin
Rutledge, Edmund
Sherman, Roger
Smith, James
Stockton, Richard
Stone, Thomas
Taylor, George

STATE
Massachusetts
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Virginia
Maryland
Maryland
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
New York
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
Georgia
Georgia
Massachusetts
Virginia
New Jersey
North Carolina
South Carolina
North Carolina
Rhode Island
New Jersey
Connecticut
Virginia
Virginia
Virginia
New York
New York
South Carolina
Delaware
South Carolina
New York
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Maryland
Massachusetts
North Carolina
Delaware
Delaware
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Maryland
Pennsylvania

PLACE OF BIRTH
Braintree, MA
Boston, MA
Amesbury, MA
Newington, VA
Annapolis, MD
Princess Anne, MD
Elizabethtown, NJ
Philadelphia, PA
Newport, RI
Brookhaven, NY
Boston, MA
Marblehead, MA
Gloucestshire , England
Wallingford, CT
Quincy, MA
Berkeley, VA
Hopewell, NJ
Princeton, NJ
St. Lukes Parrish, SC
Boston, MA
Providence, RI
Philadelphia, PA
Windham, CT
Shadwell, VA
Mt. Pleasant, VA
Stratford, VA
Llandaff, Wales
Albany, NY
Winyah, SC
New London, PA
Charleston, SC
Morrisania, NY
Lancashire, England
Ridley, PA
Yorktown, VA
Abington, MD
Boston, MA
Carolina Co. VA
North East, MD
Dover, DE
New Castle, DE
Byberry, PA
Charleston, SC
Newton, MA
Dublin, Ireland
Princeton, NJ
Charles Cty. MD
Ireland

BORN
10/30/1735
9/27/1722
11/21/1729
9/10/1736
9/19/1737
4/17/1741
2/15/1741
3/16/1739
12/22/1727
12/17/1734
1/17/1706
7/17/1744
1735
4/12/1724
1/12/1737
4/5/1726
1711
1/23/1730
7/28/1746
6/28/1742
3/7/1707
9/21/1737
7/3/1731
4/13/1743
10/14/1734
1/20/1732
3/21/1713
1/15/1716
8/5/1749
3/19/1735
6/26/1742
4/8/1726
1/31/1734
1725
12/26/1738
10/31/1740
3/11/1731
5/17/1741
9/18/1733
10/7/1728
5/10/1730
12/24/1745
11/23/1749
4/19/1721
1719
10/1/1730
1743
1716

DIED
7/4/1826
10/21/1803
5/19/1795
10/10/1797
11/14/1832
6/19/1811
9/15/1794
1/24/1813
2/15/1820
8/4/1821
4/17/1790
11/23/1814
5/19/1777
10/19/1790
10/8/1793
4/24/1791
5/11/1779
10/10/1779
3/6/1809
10/14/1790
4/13/1785
5/9/1791
1/5/1796
7/4/1826
1/11/1797
6/19/1794
12/30/1802
6/12/1778
1779
6/24/1817
1/1/1787
1/22/1798
5/8/1806
April, 1777
1/4/1789
10/13/1799
5/11/1814
9/14/1788
9/21/1798
6/29/1784
7/14/1799
4/19/1813
1/23/1800
7/23/1793
7/11/1806
2/28/1781
10/5/1787
2/23/1781

OCCUPATION
Lawyer
Merchant
Physician
Plantation Owner
Merchant
Lawyer
Lawyer / Surveyor
Merchant
Lawyer / Merchant
Land Speculator
Scientist / Printer
Merchant
Merchant
Physician / Minister
Merchant
Merchant
Land Owner
Merchant
Merchant
Lawyer
Merchant
Lawyer / Musician
Lawyer
Merchant
Plantation Owner
Merchant
Merchant
Merchant
Lawyer
Lawyer
Plantation Owner
Plantation Owner
Merchant
Farmer
Merchant
Merchant
Lawyer / Scientist
Lawyer
Lawyer
Merchant
Lawyer
Physician
Lawyer
Lawyer
Lawyer
Lawyer
Lawyer
Merchant

17

Thornton, Matthew
Walton, George
Whipple, William
Williams, William
Wilson, James
Witherspoon, John
Wolcott, Oliver
Wythe, George

New Hampshire
Georgia
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Connecticut
Virginia

Ireland
Prince Edward Cty. VA
Kittery, ME
Lebanon, CT
Carskerdo, Scotland
Gifford, Scotland
Litchfield, CT
Elizabeth City Cty., VA

1714
1741
1/14/1730
4/18/1731
9/14/1742
2/5/1723
11/26/1726
1726

6/24/1803
2/2/1804
11/28/1785
8/2/1811
8/21/1798
11/15/1794
12/1/1797
6/8/1806

Physician
Lawyer
Merchant
Merchant
Lawyer
Minister
Lawyer
Lawyer

WORDS & CONCEPTS FROM 1776

Stamp Acts
A stamp act is a law enacted by a government that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain
documents. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents. The Stamp Act of
1765 required all legal documents, permits, commercial contracts, newspapers, wills, and pamphlets
in the colonies to carry a tax stamp.
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1767 having been
proposed by Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, just before his death. These laws
placed a tax on common products imported into the American Colonies, such as lead, paper, paint,
glass, and tea.
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act, passed on April 5, 1764, was a revenue-raising Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. It revised
the earlier Sugar and Molasses Act, which had imposed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses in order to make
English products cheaper than those from the French West Indies.
Tea Act
The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the
exportation of tea to any of his Majestys colonies or plantations in America.
Molasses Act
Sugar and Molasses Act of March 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which imposed a tax of sixpence
per gallon on molasses in order to make English products cheaper than those from the French West Indies.
ADAMS: THEY MAY SIT HERE FOR YEARS AND YEARS IN
PHILADELPHIA!
THESE INDECISIVE GRENADIERS OF
PHILADELPHIA!
Grenadier (French for Grenademan) - originally a specialized assault soldier for siege operations, first
established as a distinct role in the mid to late 17th century. Grenadiers were soldiers who would throw
grenades and storm breaches, leading the forefront of such a break through.
ABIGAIL: OUR CHILDREN ALL HAVE DYSENTERY,
LITTLE TOM KEEPS TURNING BLUE.
LITTLE ABBY HAS THE MEASLES
AND IM COMING DOWN WITH FLU.
THEY SAY WE MAY GET SMALLPOX.
Dysentery - general term for a group of diseases which trigger inflammation of the lining of the large
intestines, leading to stomach pains, and diarrhea, and possibly vomiting and fever. Untreated dysentery can
cause death.
Smallpox - a highly contagious disease caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and
Variola minor.
FRANKLIN: With one hand they can raise an army, dispatch one of their own to lead it and cheer the news from
Bunkers Hill while with the other they wave the olive branch, begging the King for a happy and permanent
reconciliation.
Battle of Bunkers Hill - took place on June 17, 1775, as part of the Siege of Boston during the American
Revolutionary War. General Israel Putnam was in charge of the revolutionary forces, while Major-General
William Howe commanded the British forces.

18

ADAMS: I asked you to organize the ladies to make saltpeter for gunpowder.
Saltpeter - another name for potassium nitrate, a naturally occurring mineral source of nitrogen, but makes
up the critical oxidizing component of gun powder.
ADAMS: The mans no Botticelli.
FRANKLIN: And the subjects no Venus.
th
Reference to The Birth of Venus, a painting by 15 century Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli.

FRANKLIN: Now if we could think of a Virginian with enough influence to go down there and persuade the House of
Burgesses.
The House of Burgesses - the first elected legislative assembly in the New World established in the Colony
of Virginia in 1619. Over time, the name came to represent the entire official legislative body of the Colony of
Virginia, and later, after the American Revolution, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
RICHARD HENRY LEE: LOOK OUT!
THERES ARTHUR LEE!
BOBBY LEE!
AN GENERAL LIGHTHORSE HARRY LEE!
JESSE LEE!
WILLIE LEE!
Dr. Arthur Lee (1740-1792) - an American diplomat during the American Revolutionary War. Arthur was
trained as a doctor, but later decided to study law. During the American Revolution he was sent as envoy of the
Continental Congress to Spain and Prussia to gain support, but was unsuccessful.
Henry Lee III, called Light Horse Harry (17561818) - a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the
American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of
American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.
Jesse Lee (1758-1816) - an American Methodist Episcopal clergyman and pioneer, he formed the first
Methodist class in New England, and was often called the Apostle of Methodism. Lee was three times chosen
chaplain of the national House of Representatives and once of the Senate.
Willie Lee (1739-1795) - an American diplomat during the Revolutionary War. His brothers, all also active
within the Continental Congress, were Arthur Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Richard Henry Lee.
RUTLEDGE: Enter Delaware tria juncta in uno!
Tria juncta in uno - Latin for three joined in one.
FRANKLIN: Yes, I have that honor unfortunately the gout accompanies the honor.
Gout - a disease causing an inflammatory reaction of the joint tissues. Gout was traditionally viewed as a
disease of the rich because the foods which contribute to its development were only available in quantity to the
wealthy.
DICKINSON: Would you have us forsake Hastings and Magna Carta, Strongbow and Lionhearted, Drake and
Marlborough, Tudors, Stuarts, and Plantagenets? For what, sir? Tell me for what? For you?
The Battle of Hastings - the decisive Norman victory in the Norman conquest of England. The location was
a hill approximately six miles north of Hastings, The battle took place on October 14, 1066, between the
Normans of Duke William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) and the Saxon army led by King Harold II.
Magna Carta (Latin for Great Charter, literally Great Paper) issued in 1215, is considered one of the most
important legal documents in the history of democracy. It required the king to renounce certain rights, respect
certain legal procedures and accept that the will of the king could be bound by the law.
Strongbow - Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, Lord of Leicester, Justicar of Ireland (1130 20 April
1176), known as Strongbow, was a Cambro-Norman lord notable his leading role in the Norman invasion of
Ireland.

19

 Lionhearted - King Richard I of England was King of England from 1189 to 1199. Writers referred to him as
Richard the Lionheart, or Coeur de Leon.
Drake - Sir Francis Drake was an English privateer (or a pirate), navigator, slave trader, politician, and civil
engineer of the Elizabethan era. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in
1588.
Marlborough - The Dukedom of Marlborough is a hereditary title of British nobility in the Peerage of England.
The first holder of the title was John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (16501722), the noted English general,
and indeed an unqualified reference to the Duke of Marlborough in a historical text will almost certainly be a
reference to him.
Tudors - The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a series of six monarchs of a Welsh origin who ruled
England and Ireland from 1485 until 1603. Three of them, (Henry VII, Henry VIIIand Elizabeth I) played
important roles in transforming England from a comparatively weak European backwater still immersed in the
Middle Ages into a powerful Renaissance state that in the coming centuries would dominate much of the world,
Stuarts - The House of Stuart (or Stewart) was a royal house of the Kingdom of Scotland, later also of the
Kingdom of England, and finally of the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Stuarts were followed by the House of
Hanover.
Plantagenets - The House of Plantagenet, also called the House of Anjou, was originally a noble family from
France, which ruled the County of Anjou. They later came to rule the Kingdom of England (11541485), as well
as Jerusalem (11311205), Normandy (11441204 and 14151450), and Gascony and Guyenne (11531453).
ADAMS: Are you calling me a madman, you you you fribble!
Fribble - a trifling, frivolous person.
FRANKLIN: View-hal-loo! And whose little girl are you?
View-halloo - the shout given by a huntsman on seeing a fox break cover.
HANCOCK: Traitors to what, Mr. Dickinson the British Crown? Or the British half-crown?
Hancock is making a pun using the word crown, meaning both the British monarchy and
the British monetary denomination. Crown and half-crown coins were discontinued in 1967.
RUTLEDGE: MOLASSES TO
RUM TO
SLAVES!
WHO SAILS THE SHIPS BACK TO BOSTON
LADEN WITH GOLD? SEE IT GLEAM!
WHOSE FORTUNES ARE MADE
IN THE TRIANGLE TRADE?
Triangle Trade - Triangular trade is a historical term denoting trade between three ports or regions. They
have tended to evolve where a region had an export commodity that was not required in the region from which
its major imports came. Triangular trade thus provided a mechanism for rectifying trade imbalances. The most
notorious of these was the slave trade between North America, Africa and the West Indies.

ADAMS: FOR I HAVE CROSSED THE RUBICON,

LET THE BRIDGE BE BURND BEHIND ME!
COME WHAT MAY, COME WHAT MAY
The Rubicon - a river in northern Italy. Crossing the Rubicon is a popular expression meaning to go past a
point of no return because the river was an ancient boundary between Gaul and Italy. Julius Caesar crossed
the river in 49 BC as a deliberate act of war.

20

 EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE GUIDE

Declaration of Independence Charters of Freedom Main Page
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html
Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_style.html
Join the Signers Page
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_join_the_signers.html
Lesson Plan on American Revolution
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/
Images of the Revolution
http://www.archives.gov/research/american-revolution/pictures/index.html
Archival Research Catalog: American Revolution Gallery
http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/topics/revolutionary-war/
Military Resources: American Revolution
http://www.archives.gov/research/american-revolution/index.html
National Archives on Footnote.com
http://go.footnote.com/nara/
Digitized version of American Revolutionary War records (pension files, military service records, and Papers
of the Continental Congress)
http://www.footnote.com/page/74_papers_of_the_continental_congress/

PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE AUDIENCE GUIDE

Contributors include: Andrew Lowy, Michael T. Mooney, Peter Stone, Sherman Edwards,
Christopher Zarr of The National Archives and www.archives.gov.
Thanks to the The Guthrie Theatre (MN) and Goodspeed Musicals (CT)
as well as www.ibdb.com and www.wikipedia.com.

21