This Month in
1776
June was marked by continued progress towards independence from Britain, as the draft of the Declaration was being written by Thomas Jefferson and the Committee of Five. The Continental Congress continued to oversee the war effort while courting the Haudenosaunee to join the Patriots or at least remain neutral. George Washington was preparing to defend New York from the British without the same advantages the Continental Army had in Boston. The Army was under-equipped, under-disciplined and disadvantaged by the terrain and supplies for fortification.
Committee of Five, 1776
Ratzer Map, 1776
June 7: Virginia delegate Richard Lee boldly moved a Declaration of Independence in the Continental Congress saying the colonies, “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”
June 11: The Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five to draft a formal Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson (Virginia), John Adams (Massachusetts), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), Roger Sherman (Connecticut), and Robert R. Livingston (New York) as members.
June 11: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) leaders were invited into the Philadelphia State House where the question of independence was being debated by the Congress.. There a speech was delivered in which they were addressed as “Brothers” and told of the delegates’ wish that the “friendship” between them would “continue as long as the sun shall shine” and the “waters run." After this speech, an Onondaga chief requested permission to give John Hancock an Indian name. The Congress consented, and so the President was renamed “Karanduawn, or the Great Tree.”
June 12: The Virginia Convention adopted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Authored primarily by George Mason, it proclaimed inherent natural rights and heavily influenced Thomas Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence and James Madison's creation of the U.S. Bill of Rights.
June 28: American forces at Fort Sullivan (now Fort Moultrie) in Charleston, South Carolina, successfully repelled a major British sea assault led by Admiral Peter Parker and General Henry Clinton.. Fort Sullivan was a partially finished palmetto-log fortification built to defend Charleston's harbor.
June 28: The final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to Continental Congress by the Committee of Five.
June 29: Mission Dolores was founded at San Francisco Bay by explorer and military officer Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and Francisco Palóu. The first church in San Francisco held its first services on June 29, 1776.
June 29: The Virginia State Constitution was adopted and Patrick Henry was made Governor.
June 29: General George Washington's fears of being outgunned and outmaneuvered in New York (City) were becoming a reality. Unlike Boston, New York lacked high ground and the army lacked the supplies to fortify vulnerable waterways. On June 29, 1776, the British fleet under General William Howe began arriving in New York Harbor from Nova Scotia, signaling the start of a massive offensive.