River Falls Journal

Of Course The Pioneer Rebel Was Woman.

It wasn't Mecklenburg, nor Philadelphia, where independence was first proclaimed, but in a letter from Mrs. John Adams to her husband. When the King issued his proclamation for suppressing rebellion and sedition, after the failure of the mission of Richard Penn, Mrs. Adams wrote to Mr. Adams in Philadelphia:

"This intelligence will make a plain path for you, though a dangerous one. I could not join to-day in the petition of our worthy pastor for a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state and these colonies. Let us separate; they are unworthy to be our brethren. Let us renounce them; and instead of supplications, as formerly, for their prosperity and happiness, let us beseech the Almighty to blast their counsels and to bring to naught all their devices." This was a declaration of independence preceding by months that which Jefferson wrote.