(Excerpt from The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall & David Manuel)
The decision was twelve to none. The Colonies had just become the United States of America.
In the silence that followed the announcement of the vote, the late afternoon sun cast its soft rays through the tall windows- on a brass candlestick standing on a green felt table-covering, a carved eagle over the door, a pair of spectacles lying on a polished desk. The magnitude of what they had done began to weigh upon them, and they realized that they and their countrymen were no longer Englishmen, but citizens of a fledgling nation barely a few minutes old. Many stared out the window. Some wept openly. Some, like Witherspoon, bowed their heads and closed their eyes in prayer.
John Hancock broke the silence; "Gentlemen, the price on my head has just been doubled!"
A wry chuckle followed, and then Samuel Adams rose: "We have this day restored the Sovereign, to Whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and... from the rising to the setting sun, may His Kingdom come."
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