June 22, 1776

July 8 was set as an election day in Philadelphia, when delegates would be chosen for a constitutional convention. This news was printed in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, along with an expectation that the convention would meet beginning on July 15 in Philadelphia. As John Adams explained in a letter to Cotton Tufts on June 23, the Pennsylvania Assembly had become “so obnoxious, and unpopular, among the Inhabitants” that they were “obliged to die away, without doing any Thing else, even without Adjourning, and give Place to a Conference of Committees and a Convention.” Adams remarked on the “extremely unanimous, spirited, zealous, and determined” character of the Conference of Committees, and clearly had high hopes for the upcoming election.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post
Printed by Benjamin Towne

This day the Conference of Committees fixed the election of the Provincial Convention to be on the eighth of July next.

We hear that the intended Provincial Convention will meet the fifteenth of next month, in this city.