Atlee, the reader. The effect at its final reading was, if possible,
even more dramatic and eloquent. Whittier has depicted this closing and
thrilling scene. He has described how Samuel J. May read the declaration
for the last time. "His sweet, persuasive voice faltered with the
intensity of his emotions as he repeated the solemn pledges of the
concluding paragraphs. After a season of silence, David Thurston of
Maine, rose as his name was called by one of the secretaries and affixed
his name to the document. One after another passed up to the platform,
signed, and retired in silence. All felt the deep responsibility of the
occasion--the shadow and forecast of a life-long struggle rested upon
every countenance."
The effects, so electrical and impressive, which followed the reading of
the declaration were not disproportioned to its merits, for it was an
instrument of singular power, wisdom, and eloquence. Indeed, to this
day, more than half a century after it was written it still has virtue
to quicken the breath and stir the pulses of a sympathetic reader out of
their normal time. A great passion for freedom and righteousness
irradiates like a central light the whole memorable document. It begins
by a happy reference to an earlier convention, held some fifty-seven
years before in the same place, and which adopted a declaration holding
"that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, LIBERTY, and
the pursuit of happiness;" and how at the trumpet-call of its authors
three millions of people rushed to arms "deeming it more glorious to die
instantly as free men, than desirable to live one hour as slaves"; and
how, though few in number and poor in resources those same people were
rendered invincible by the conviction that truth, justice, and right
were on their side.
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