Picture of 'The Day of Decision'

PI5

Picture of 'The Day of Decision'

This is a badly spotted copy of the mural 'The Day of Decision' which could be of use in a school exhibit (identify). Explication of the mural is on the back: 'The Day of Decision' a mural painted by Barry Faulkner for the home office of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company depicts the tense moment in the Continental Congress in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on July 2, 1776. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia has just finished reading the Independence Resolve: 'RESOLVED, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States,' John Hancock, President of the Congress in the chair, is about to say 'Gentlemen, you have heard the Resolution: As this momentous question has been fully debated by the Congress during the past two months, I will, if no member objects, proceed to take the vote.' The Independence Resolve was passed. Next day, July 3, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, 'Yesterday the greatest question was decided, which ever was debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men.' After the passage of this resolution it only remained to read and adopt Thomas Jefferson's amended draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was done on July 3 and 4. A number of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were not present on July 2. Shown in the mujral are more than half of the members actually present: L to R - Robert Morris, George Clinton, Stephen Hopkins, Thomas McKean, Joseph Hewes, Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, Josiah Bartlett, William Paca, Lyman Hall, Thomas Stone, Rev. Samuel Witherspoon, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, John Adams, James Wilson, Robert Paine, Francis Hopkinson, Benjamin Harrison, Charles Thomson (Clerk), Samuel Huntington, John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, Edward Rutledge.

Artifacts

83.8 x 58.4 x 2.5 cm (33 x 23 x 1 in)

1776-07-02

2007-03-23

PTG Box B