It was an easy matter to declare the colonies free and independent; it was not so easy * "With what grandeur, with what enthusiasm, should I not speak of those generous men who erected this grand edifice by their patience, their wisdom, and their courage!" wrote the Abbé Raynal in 1781. "Hancock, Franklin, the two Adamses, were the greatest actors in this affecting scene; but they were not the only ones. Posterity shall know them all. Their honored names shall be transmitted to it by a happier pen than mine. Brass and marble shall show them to remotest ages. In beholding them, shall the friend of freedom feel his heart palpitate with joy--feel his eyes float in delicious tears. Under the bust of one of them has been written, He wrested thunder from heaven and the scepter from tyrants.* Of the last words of this eulogy shall all of them partake."--Essay on The Revolution in America. * I ask," exclaimed Mirabeau, on the tribune of the National Assembly of France, while descanting upon our Declaration, "I ask if the powers who have formed alliances with the States have dared to read that manifesto, or to interrogate their consciences after the perusal? I ask whether there be at this day one government in Europe--the Helvetic and Batavian confederations and the British isles excepted--which, judged after the principles of the Declaration of Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, is not divested of its rights?" And Napoleon afterward, alluding to the same scene, said, "The finger of God was there!"--See Bailey's Preface to Records of Patriotism. ** This gives the appearance of the shorter steeple, which took the place of the stately one taken down in 1774. This was its appearance during the Revolution. A huge clock case was upon each gable of the main building of the State House. * "Eripuit colo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis * This line was the exergue of a medal which was struck in Paris in honor of Franklin, when he was the United States embassador at the court of Versailles in 1777. It was written by Turgot, the Controller-general of the Finances of France, who died four years afterward. [[[Organization of State Governments.--Adjournment of Congress to Baltimore.--__Trip to Red Bank.]]]