WHEN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS NEWS

Innumerable books recount its creation, but then what happened?

Historian Sneff, a leading expert on the Declaration of Independence, reminds readers that the Revolution was already a year old at its adoption on July 4, 1776. Every colony received the news by the end of the month. Sneff does a fine job of answering “the questions of who experienced the news of independence, and when and how they did so, [which] reveals a critical, overlooked history of the American Revolution.” She begins on May 15, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress issued a resolution recommending that colonies “form new governments founded on the consent of the governed.” Few doubted that this was a call for independence, and by the year’s end, all royal governors were gone. The ball was rolling; in June a committee of five composed a formal declaration with Thomas Jefferson doing most of the work, and Congress formally adopted it on July 4. On that day, Philadelphia printer John Dunlap ran off several hundred broadsides, of which 25 survive. Both the broadsides and the news traveled the world, and half-a-dozen chapters deliver details of its reception. Mostly greeted enthusiastically throughout the colonies, the declaration was often read aloud to crowds, but Sneff reminds readers that it presented Anglican clergymen with a painful decision. During ordination, all swore to adhere to the Book of Common Prayer, which requires prayers for the king’s health and prosperity. A minority decided to skip the prayers, but breaking an oath was a serious matter, and about half of Anglican churches shut their doors. Britain was grumbling over the news by August, yet the lone copy of the official version sent to France never arrived, so representative Silas Deane could only gnash his teeth until another came in November. France’s government expressed pleasure at Britain’s discomfiture but declined a military alliance.

An enjoyable, behind-the-scenes account of an iconic American document.