The
Bishop's Notebook Archive
Independence
Day
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The
Bishop's Notebook, 04 July 2003
“ In
the late spring of 1776 Thomas Jefferson moved his favorite
chair and writing desk up to Philadelphia but not near Market
and Seventh Streets where the Continental Congress was meeting.
Anticipating that he might be a draftsman, he wanted to be
away from the bustle of things and 'have the benefits of freely
circulating air.' But his head and heart were in Virginia,
with his wife Martha and her pregnancy (she had a miscarriage
the year before) and with the state legislature in Williamsburg
as they struggled to focus on their own separation from King
George lll. What writing he was to do would be regularly sent
home, this extended session with the Congress was an afterthought.
Now in May, it appeared that he would be stuck here well into
the summer as the assemblage waited for concurrences from
various states on a motion for independence...”
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