The only British army in America had withdrawn to Halifax: his Majesty’s troops had nowhere a foothold in the colonies. But that, every one knew, was only the first act in a struggle which must grow vastly greater and more tragical before it was ended. Washington knew very well that there was now no drawing back. Not since the affair at Bunker Hill had he deemed it possible to draw back; and now this initial success in arms had made the friends of revolution very bold everywhere. As spring warmed into summer it was easy to mark the growth in the spirit of independence. One of the first measures of the Continental Congress, after coming together for its third annual session in May, 1776, was to urge the several colonies to provide themselves with regular and permanent governments as independent states, instead of continuing to make shift with committees of safety for executives and provisional “provincial congresses” for legislatures, as they had done since their government under the crown had fallen to pieces; and they most of them promptly showed a disposition to take its advice. The resolution in which the Congress embodied this significant counsel plainly declared “that the exercise of every kind of authority under the crown ought to be totally suppressed,” and all the powers of government exercised under authority from the people of the colonies,—words themselves equivalent to a declaration for entire separation from Great Britain. Even in the colonies where loyalists mustered strongest the government of the crown had in fact almost everywhere been openly thrown off. But by midsummer it was deemed best to make a formal Declaration of Independence. North Carolina was the first to instruct her delegates to take that final and irretrievable step; but most of the other colonies were ready to follow her lead; and on July 4th Congress adopted the impressive Declaration which Mr. Jefferson had drawn up in the name of its committee. [Illustration: R. H. LEE’S RESOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE] [Illustration: STATE HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA, 1778]