The vote of Congress of May 15, 1776, had called upon the several colonies to provide for independent governments, and Jameson (_Constitutional Conventions_, N. Y., 1867, p. 112, etc.) summarizes the actions of the several States.[714] New Hampshire was the first to act, and Belknap in his _New Hampshire_, and the histories of the other States, tell the story of their procedures. South Carolina was the next, but Virginia was the earliest to form such a constitution that it could last for many years. On June 12, 1776, she adopted her famous Declaration of Rights, drawn by Geo. Mason,[715] and June 29th perfected her constitution.[716] For New Jersey, see L. Q. C. Elmer's _Hist. of the Constitution adopted in 1776 and of the government under it_ (Newark, 1870, and in _N. J. Hist. Soc. Proc._, 2d ser., ii. 132), and the _Journal and votes and Proceedings of the Convention of New Jersey_ (Burlington, 1776). For the movements in Pennsylvania, see Reed's _Jos. Reed_, i. ch. 7; the _Proceedings relative to the calling of the Conventions of 1776 and 1790_ (Harrisburg, 1825); Anna H. Wharton's "Thomas Wharton, first governor of Pennsylvania", in the _Penna. Mag. of Hist._, v. 426, vi. 91; and the biographies of the members of the convention in the _Penna. Mag. of Hist._, iii. and iv. The statements of the loyalist Jones in his _New York during the Rev._ (p. 321) are controverted by Johnston in his _Observations_ (p. 41). [Illustration: CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL'S DIARY. A page from Christopher Marshall's diary, preserved in the Penna. Hist. Soc., giving his description of the public reading of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia, on July 8th. Cf. _Extracts from the diary of Christopher Marshall kept in Philadelphia and Lancaster during the American Revolution, 1774-1781, edited by Wm. Duane_ (Albany, 1877). On this reading, see _Penna. Mag. of Hist._, viii. 352, and W. Sargent's _Loyal Verses of Stansbury and Odell_, p. 116. The English notion of the way in which the proclamation was made may be learned from Edward Bernard's contemporary folio _Hist. of England_ (p. 689), where a large print represents an uncovered man on horseback reading a scroll to a crowd in the street, called "The manner in which the American Colonies declared themselves independent of the King of England throughout the different provinces on July 4, 1776." The reading took place in New York July 9th (Bancroft, ix. 36), and in Boston July 18th (_Mem. Hist. Boston_, iii. 183). Moore's _Diary of the Rev._, i. (1776), records from contemporary journals the way in which it was received in various places. A letter of Major F. Barber in the _New Jersey Hist. Soc. Proc._, v., shows how the reception of the news was observed at Fort Stanwix.]