CHAPTER XX. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. HARTFORD was reached on the 29th by the two delegates, where, in a secret meeting with Governor Trumbull and others, they heard the plan arranged for the surprise of Ticonderoga. Cushing, John Adams, and Paine joined them, and soon afterward, in company with the Con- necticut delegation, the Massachusetts deputies entered New York with great ceremony. With their number increased to fourteen by the ad- dition of the New York delegates, they crossed the Hudson, escorted by five hundred gentle- men and two hundred militia. Through New Jersey the honors continued, and at Philadel- phia the climax was reached. Says Curwen "Journal:" -- "Early in the morning a great number of persons rode out several miles, hearing that the Eastern del- egates were approaching, when, about eleven o'clock, the cavalcade appeared (I being near the upper end of Fore Street); first, two or three hundred gentle- men on horseback, preceded, however, by the newly
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