As the news spread there were bonfires and illuminations in all the colonies.

On the day after the Declaration the Virginia Convention struck out "O Lord, save the King" from the church service.

On the 10th of July Washington, who by this time had moved to New York, paraded the army and had the Declaration read at the head of each brigade.

That evening the statue of King George in New York was laid in the dust.

It is a comment on the changes in human fortune that within little more than a year the British had taken Philadelphia, that the clamorous bell had been hid away for safety, and that colonial wiseacres were urging the rescinding of the ill-timed Declaration and the reunion of the British Empire..