Carrot Top

The Declaration of Independence document gave independence of the 13 British colonies in America and was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, in the name of the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress, moved 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.” This motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts, but action thereon was deferred until July 1, and the resolution was passed on the following day.

In the meantime, a committee (appointed June 11) comprising the delegates Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston was preparing a declaration in line with Lee’s resolution. Jefferson prepared the draft, using “neither book nor pamphlet,” as he later said. Adams and Franklin made a number of minor changes in Jefferson’s draft before it was submitted to Congress, which, on July 4, made a number of additional small alterations, deleted several sections, including one condemning black slavery, incorporated Lee’s resolution, and issued the whole as the Declaration of Independence.

The declaration was adopted by a unanimous vote of the delegates of 12 colonies, those representing New York not voting because they had not been authorized to do so. On July 9, however, the New York Provincial Congress voted to endorse the declaration:

“Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and stile of ‘The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America’ and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.”

On August 2, it was signed by the 53 members present on parchment in accordance with a resolution passed by Congress on July 19. On August 2, it was signed by the 53 members present. The 3 who were absent signed later.