♪ The Declaration of Independence was formally ratified on July 4th, 1776-- just 1,337 words that ended with the phrase "We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

♪ When Rhode Island delegate Stephen Hopkins, who had palsy, signed the document, he is said to have remarked, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

[Crowd cheering] It was first read aloud to a cheering crowd in the State House yard at Philadelphia on July 8th.

It was soon published in 29 newspapers, and greeted by parades and celebratory volleys of gunfire throughout the newly United States.

[Gunfire] Voice: Boston, Massachusetts-- when Colonel Crafts read the proclamation, great attention was given to every word, and every face appeared joyful.

The King's arms were taken down from the State House and every vestige of him from every place in which it appeared and burned in King Street.

Thus ends royal authority in this state, and all the people shall say "Amen."

Abigail Adams.

[Crowd cheering] Narrator: On July 9th, in New York, General Washington ordered the Declaration read to his troops.

Hearing the list of George III's alleged crimes so angered the men that a number of them raced down Broadway to Bowling Green, tied ropes to the statue of the King, and pulled it to the ground.

♪ Pieces of the shattered statue were dispatched by wagon to Litchfield, Connecticut, where Patriots melted the gilded lead into bullets-- 42,088 of them.

♪ Far to the north at Fort Ticonderoga, the battered survivors of the failed invasion of Canada were assembled so that the Declaration could be read to them.

When it was over, an eyewitness said, "The language of every man's countenance was, "Now we are a people; we have a name among the states of the world."

♪