WHEN THE PATRIOTS WAVERED.

Dr. John Witherspoon's Stirring Words, Which Brought the Continental Congress to the Point of Decision on the Eventful Fourth of July, 1776.

On the morning of the Fourth of July, 1776, the members of the Continental Congress, in session at Philadelphia, were deliberating on the proposed Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, composing the committee appointed for the purpose, had reported several days before the document that is now familiar to every American schoolboy, but action had been delayed, and on this eventful morning, when the Congress began its final consideration, the vital character of the Declaration was recognized with the growing hesitancy of an awed responsibility.

The patriots now saw that they were at the edge of an action by which all chance of retreat would be cut off; that they were preparing to expose themselves, their families, and their estates to harsh reprisals if their revolution failed. At this crisis of painful silence a patriot arose—a man not very old in years, but showing signs of approaching age in his frosted locks. In vehement tones he said:

There is a tide in the affairs of men, a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. That noble instrument upon your table, which insures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning, by every pen in the house. He who will not respond to its accents, and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions, is unworthy the name of a freeman. Although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather they would descend thither by the hand of the public executioner, than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country.

The speaker ceased. Confidence and determination returned to that assembly, and forthwith the Declaration of Independence was adopted. It was signed that day by John Hancock, President of the Congress. On August 2d, the engrossed copy was signed by the fifty-three members then present, and subsequently three others affixed their names.

The man whose words brought the Continental Congress to action was John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, the President of Princeton College. He was born in Gifford, Haddingtonshire, Scotland, February 5, 1722, and died near Princeton, N.J., September 15, 1794. A graduate of Edinburgh University, he became a prominent Calvinistic pastor, essayist, and educator. He declined the presidency of Princeton in 1766, but accepted a second invitation, and was inaugurated in 1768.

Dr. Witherspoon was a most devoted patriot. Throughout the War of Independence his energies were given freely to the service of the Colonies.