Page 95 - JM Book 9/2020

Finally, when it was obvious their minds were not going to be changed, Jefferson very reluctantly gave his approval for the provision to be cut.
“Nothing must postpone the adoption of the declaration,” John Adams had said the night before. Franklin, Jefferson, John and Sam Adams had met at Franklin’s home to plan their strategy. They decided for the sake of unanimity to allow the slavery passage to be removed only if the South Carolina and Georgia delegates would not abandon their threat to vote against the declaration if the “offending language” were retained.
Removing the slavery clause upset Jefferson more than all of the other changes and deletions that had been made. After he gave his approval to remove the passage, he stood and looked out the window until he was able to regain his composure.
The delegates in Philadelphia could not know that it would be almost one hundred years before slavery would be ended in America, or the terrible cost of the civil war that would be fought to end it.
Another topic that drew a great deal of discussion that afternoon was whether or not the declaration should criticize Parliament and the British people as Jefferson had done.
“Our quarrel is not with Parliament or the British people,” one delegate said with passion in his voice. “Our quarrel is with King George. Parliament does the king’s bidding, because he controls that body. And the British people have done us no harm. Our attention should be directed at King George, not at Parliament or the British people.”
The committee of the whole voted after a short debate to remove all references that criticized Parliament and the British people.
The committee now turned its attention to the declaration’s last three paragraphs. Within a relatively short period of time, they deleted substantial amounts of text, inserted new words and phrases, and added a new sentence to the final paragraph.
After everyone was satisfied with the wording of the declaration, Committee Chairman Harrison reported to President Hancock that the committee had reached an agreement on the edited declaration of independence. Hancock accepted the gavel from Harrison and called the Congress back to order. Before
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