The foregoing draft of a Declaration of Independence was debated, paragraph after paragraph, from the twenty-eighth of June (the day it was reported), until the fourth of July; and many alterations, omissions, and amendments, it has been seen, were made. In the meanwhile, the friends of the measure were fearful that a unanimous vote of all the colonies could not be obtained, inasmuch as Maryland and Pennsylvania refused to sanction the measure. The delegates from the former colony were unanimously in favor of it, while those of the latter were divided in opinion.

In consequence of the action in the Assembly of Pennsylvania, it was deemed important that the sense of the people upon the momentous question before Congress should be taken, and accordingly a convention was called to meet at Philadelphia on the twenty-fourth of June, consisting of committees from each county. The members of that convention, acting as the representatives of the people of Pennsylvania passed a resolution in which they expressed "their willingness to concur in a vote of Congress, declaring the united colonies free and independent states." This resolution left the Pennsylvania delegates free to act according to the dictates of their own judgments and consciences.

As we have already observed, in the biography of Charles Carroll and others of the delegates from Maryland, the convention of that colony, as late as the latter part of May, instructed their delegates not to vote for independence; but through the indefatigable labors and great influence of Chase, Carroll, Paca, and others, another convention was held in that colony; and on the twenty-eighth of June they recalled their former instructions and empowered their delegates "to concur with the other colonies in a declaration of independence, in forming a union among the colonies, in making foreign alliances, and in adopting such measures as should be judged necessary for securing the liberties of America.³¹

On the day upon which the committee reported the Declaration, it was referred to a committee of the whole House, and all the colonies assented to it except Pennsylvania and Delaware. Four of the seven delegates from the former voted against it, and the two delegates from Delaware, who were present, were divided—Thomas M'Kean in favor of it, and George Read opposed to it. It came up for final decision on the fourth of July. Robert Morris and John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, were absent. The former was in favor, the latter was against, the resolution. Of the five who were present, Doctor Franklin, James Wilson, and John Morton, were in favor of it, and Willing and Humphreys were opposed to it; so the vote of Pennsylvania was secured. To obtain the vote of Delaware, Mr. M'Kean after the vote on the first of July, sent an express after Mr. Rodney, the other delegate from that colony, then eighty miles distant. He arrived in time to cast his vote on the fourth, and thus made a majority for Delaware. Thus a unanimous vote of the colonies was given in favor of declaring the United Colonies FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, "having 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." From that day the word colony is not known in our history.³²

³¹ Pitkin, vol i., p. 364.

³² On the ninth of September ensuing, Congress adopted the following resolution: "That in all continental commissions where heretofore the words "United Colonies" have been used, the style be altered in future to the "United States" In 1777, the red ground of the American flag was altered to thirteen red and white stripes, as an emblem of the thirteen states united in a war for liberty.