Decided that these united colonies are free and independent states and are right, that they are absolved of all loyalty to the British Crown and that any political link between them and the State of Great Britain is and must be completely dissolved. That the most effective measures should be taken immediately to form foreign alliances. That a plan of confederation be drawn up and sent to the respective colonies for consideration and approval. At the beginning of development, many delegates were not yet allowed to vote for independence, as states had not yet allowed them to do so. Meanwhile, a group of men were appointed to draft an official statement, hoping that states would soon be ready to support the document if it was sent to the Crown in England. On the 30th. In April 1941, the new Librarian of Congress, Archibald MacLeish, fearing that the war raging in Europe would engulf the United States, wrote to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. The librarian was concerned with the most precious of the many objects in his charge. He wrote „to find out if space could be found“ at the ingot depot at Fort Knox for its most valuable materials, including explanation, „in the unlikely event that it becomes necessary to remove them from Washington.“ Minister Morgenthau replied that space would indeed be made available if it was necessary to „store the most important documents you could designate.“ The American patriots installed a shadow government, and 12 colonies joined them and formed a Continental Congress. In April 1775, hostilities degenerated into armed conflict, the independence movement gained momentum and the declaration was adopted in July 1776.
On July 1, 1776, the Congress met again. The next day, the Lee resolution for the independence of 12 of the 13 colonies was passed, New York did not vote. Immediately after, Congress began considering the declaration. Adams and Franklin had made few changes before the committee presented the document. The discussion in Congress led to some changes and deletions, but the basic document remained Jefferson`s document. The review process continued throughout 3 July until the end of the morning of 4 July. The declaration had been formally adopted. The librarian then demanded $12,000 for his purpose.
The need was urgent because the new budget office was about to print the next budget estimates. So there was no time to create detailed architectural plans. On January 16, 1922, Putnam told a budget committee what he had in mind. „There is a way.. We could, for example, build a bronze enclosure on the second floor on the west side in this long open gallery, where these documents with one or two auxiliary documents leading to them could be placed where they do not need to be touched by anyone, but where a simple passerby could see them, where they could be placed in permanent bronze frames and where they could be protected from natural light, Illuminated only by soft incandescent lamps. The result could be achieved, and you would have something that every visitor to Washington would want to tell when they return, and that, as the people in the newspapers say, would consider it with great interest as a kind of „sanctuary.“ The librarian`s imaginative presentation was successful: the sum of $12,000 was approved and approved on March 20, 1922. However, the Commission took no action at that time. After the completion of the Centennial Exhibition, attempts were made to obtain ownership of the Declaration of Philadelphia, but these failed and the parchment was returned to the Patent Office in Washington, where it had been since 1841, although this office became part of the Department of the Interior. On April 11, 1876, Robert H.
Duell, Commissioner of Patents, wrote to Zachariah Chandler, Secretary of the Interior, suggesting that „the Declaration of Independence and General Washington`s Commission associated with it in the same framework belong to your department as inheritances. Recent studies on the curators` statement to the National Archives have raised doubts about the need for a „wet transfer.“ However, the detection of this event cannot be strictly verified or challenged with modern investigative methods. No documentation was found prior to the 1881 reference to support the theory; Therefore, we may never know if Stone actually performed the procedure. President Warren G. Harding agreed. On September 29, 1921, he issued the decree authorizing the transfer. The next day, Secretary Hughes sent a copy of the order to Congress librarian Herbert Putnam, stating that he was „ready to give you the documents if you are ready to receive them.“ Although the Congress adopted the declaration presented by the Committee of Five, the Committee`s task is not yet complete. Congress had also ordered the committee to oversee the printing of the adopted document. The first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence were published by the affairs of John Dunlap, the official printer of Congress. After the declaration was adopted, the committee brought the handwritten document to Dunlap, perhaps Jefferson`s „fair copy“ of his draft. On the morning of July 5, copies were sent by members of Congress to various assemblies, congresses, and security committees, as well as to commanders of continental troops.
Also on July 5, a copy of the printed version of the approved declaration was inserted into the „raw newspaper“ of the Continental Congress for July 4. The text was followed by the words „Signed by order and on behalf of Congress, John Hancock, President. Certify. Charles Thomson, Secretary. It is not known how many copies John Dunlap printed on his busy night of July 4. There are 26 known copies of what is commonly known as the „Dunlap broadside“, 21 belonging to American institutions, 2 to British institutions and 3 to private owners. (See Appendix A.) At the Second Continental Congress in the summer of 1776, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia was commissioned to draft an official declaration justifying the break-up of the 13 North American colonies with Great Britain. Member of a five-member committee, including John Adams of . In July 1789, under the new constitution, the First Congress created the State Department and ordered that its secretary have „custody and responsibility for all documents, books, and papers“ held by the department of the same name under the previous government. On July 24, Charles Thomson resigned as Secretary of Congress and delivered the statement to Roger Alden, Assistant Secretary of State, on the orders of President George Washington.
In September 1789, the name of the department was changed to the Department of State. Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, returned from France in March 1790 to assume his duties as first secretary of state. These obligations now rightly also included the retention of the declaration. Senator Theodore H. Green, chair of the Joint Committee on the Library, agreed that the transfer should take place, but said it would be necessary for his committee to act on the issue. Evans went alone to the committee meeting on April 30, 1952. There is no official record of what was said at the meeting, other than that the Joint Library Committee ordered that the documents be handed over to the National Archives. The archives were not only the official custodian of government records, but also, according to the committee`s decision, the near-bomb-proof building in Washington. In 1933, as the Depression gripped the nation, President Hoover laid the foundation stone for the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. He announced that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would eventually be preserved in the impressive structure that was to occupy the site. In fact, it is for their preservation and exhibition that the exhibition hall of the National Archives was designed. Two large murals were painted for its walls.
One depicts Thomas Jefferson presenting the statement to John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, as members of this revolutionary watch. In the second, James Madison is depicted handing over the Constitution to George Washington. Assuming the declaration was associated with Congress, it would have been back in Philadelphia from March to September 1777. On September 27, he reportedly moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for only 1 day. From September 30, 1777 to June 1778, the declaration was kept at the York Courthouse in Pennsylvania. From July 1778 to June 1783 he is said to have had a long stay in Philadelphia. .