Editor’s Note: The resolution declaring independence from Britain was first introduced to the Second Continental Congress by Virginian Richard Henry Lee on June 7, 1776. But it became evident that all the delegates on hand weren’t yet close to supporting it. Those from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina were not yet prepared to vote in the affirmative to make the formal break. So the Congress tabled the matter for the time being and voted to revisit it on July 1. Meanwhile, it named a five-person committee — John Adams of Massachusetts, Robert R. Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia — to draft a formal declaration of independence, which was given to the Congress for consideration on June 28. Debate on Lee’s resolution was resumed on July 1, and carried over into the following day. It was approved unanimously ( with one abstention by New York (which finally approved it on July 9, 1776). After it was approved, none other than John Adams predicted that the “second day of July, 1776…will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival…solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other.” Adams was two days off the mark, it turns out, and so it is that many today don’t know or appreciate fully that July 2, 1776 marks our ‘real’ and first declaration of independence.
The Lee Resolution
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.
That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.
Source:
The American Journal of Education, Vol. 27, Henry Barnard, Ed., Hartford, CT: Office of American Journal of Education, 1877, p. 523.
Image source:
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=1
Further reading:
Memoir of the Life of Richard Henry Lee, Richard E. Lee, Philadelphia: H.C. Carey and I. Lea, 1825
