[_Three men have ridden into the scene. They are Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton and George Washington. There to meet them come the President of the Continental Congress and Members of Congress. Washington dismounts and advances until the President and he stand face to face._]
We, reposing special trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, conduct and fidelity, do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you to be general and commander-in-chief of the army of the United Colonies and of all the forces now raised or to be raised by them for the defense of American Liberty.
[_He presents the sword of office to Washington who stands looking very seriously at it._]
I beg it may be remembered that I this day declare with utmost sincerity I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with. But, as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose.
[_He accepts the sword. A great sigh comes like a hope from all around._
_A roll of snare drums far away and the groupings shift so that Washington and Freedom stand alone together and the others draw aside. Drum rhythms succeed one another until they resolve into two themes. The one, played by the kettledrums, follows the syncopation of the Spokesmen’s words. The other, played by the snare drums, marks the time of a march. To this accompaniment, the Continental Army comes upon the scene. First, the farmers who have left their ploughs to join Warren for Bunker Hill. Then the tatterdemalion army of which Washington took command for the siege of Boston. Then the mob takes on form and appearance and order such as it must have had to accomplish Burgoyne’s defeat, and the retreat through Jersey. At the same time the Choir has begun to intone the Declaration of Independence. The two Spokesmen listen and take up their shouted responses. And the intoning runs rhythmically, following the accents of the kettledrums which, in their turn, follow the accents of Jefferson’s prose._]
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another....
And to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them....