must always be of profound interest. The public are inclined to think
that our Magna Charta was accepted and signed with unbounded enthusiasm
and that scarcely any opposition to it appeared, but the contrary was
the fact.

While Jefferson was the author of the instrument, John Adams, more than
any one man or half a dozen men brought about its adoption. When the
question was afterward asked him, whether every member of congress
cordially approved it, he replied, "Majorities were constantly against
it. For many days the majority depended on Mr. Hewes of North Carolina.
While a member one day was reading documents to prove that public
opinion was in favor of the measure, Mr. Hewes suddenly started upright,
and lifting up both hands to heaven, as if in a trance, cried out:

'It is done, and I will abide by it.'

I would give more for a perfect painting of the terror and horror of
the faces of the old majority at that moment than for the best piece of
Raphael."

Jefferson has given a synopsis of the arguments for and against the
adoption of the Declaration. It will be remembered that the hope of
the colonies or new States, even after the war had continued for a
considerable time, was not so much independence as to extort justice
from Great Britain.

Had this been granted, the separation would have been deferred and when
it came, as come it must, probably would have been peaceable. At the
same time, there was a strenuous, aggressive minority who was insistent
from the first for a complete severance of the ties binding us to the