Record of the descendants of John Alexander

Hugh Alexander. 21
year ago yesterday the battle of Bunker Hill was
fought.' The Second Continental Congress had been in
session since May 10th. It was on the 7th of June that
Richard Henry Lee, member of Congress from Virginia,
offered the famous resolution that was the harbinger of
the Declaration of Independence, which was, ' That the
united Colonies are and ought to be free and independ-
ent States, and that their political connections with
Great Britain is and ought to be dissolved.' This reso-
lution was adopted by nine of the Colonies, by their
representatives in Congress voting for it. Of the four
remaining Colonies, New York did not vote at all,
Delaware was divided, South Carolina and Pennsylvania
voted against it.
"The subject of the Declaration of Independence was
placed in the hands of a committee, to be drawn in due
form, in which form it was to be presented to Congress
for final action. This is the critical moment. Many a
good cause has been crippled or killed in the committee-
room. The best of causes have been defeated on a
technicality. How shall the report of this committee
be made, and in what spirit will it be received X What
will be the vote of Pennsylvania when the Declaration
is to be pronounced upon as a finality \ This was the
posture of affairs when the Provincial Conference as-
sembled in Carpenter's Hall on June the 18th. These
delegates, coming directly from the people, at once
joined issue with the Provincial Assembly, who had
placed the members they had chosen to Congress under
instruction as follows: — 'We strictly enjoin you, in
behalf of this Colony, to desist and utterly reject any
proposition, should such be made, that may cause or
lead to a separation from our mother country or change
in the form of government.' This resolution had its
parentage in Joseph Galloway, a man of erudition and