On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies claimed their independence
from England, an event which eventually led to the formation of the
United States. Each year on July 4th, also known as Independence Day,
Americans celebrate this historic event.
Conflict between the colonies and England was already a year old when
the colonies convened a Continental Congress in Philadelphia in the
summer of 1776. In a June 7 session in the Pennsylvania State House
(later Independence Hall), Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a
resolution with the famous words: "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."
Lee's words were the impetus for the drafting of a formal
Declaration of Independence, although the resolution was not followed up
on immediately. On June 11, consideration of the resolution was
postponed by a vote of seven colonies to five, with New York abstaining.
However, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a statement
presenting to the world the colonies' case for independence. Members of
the Committee included John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of
Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of
New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The task of drafting the
actual document fell on Jefferson.
On July 1, 1776, the Continental Congress reconvened, and on the
following day, the Lee Resolution for independence was adopted by 12 of
the 13 colonies, New York not voting. Discussions of Jefferson's
Declaration of Independence
resulted in some minor changes, but the spirit of the document was
unchanged. The process of revision continued through all of July 3 and
into the late afternoon of July 4, when the Declaration was officially
adopted. Of the 13 colonies, nine voted in favor of the Declaration, two
-- Pennsylvania and South Carolina -- voted No, Delaware was undecided
and New York abstained. John Hancock, President of the Continental
Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence. It is said that John
Hancock's signed his name "with a great flourish" so England's "King
George can read that without spectacles!"
Today, the original copy of the Declaration is housed in the National
Archives in Washington, D.C., and July 4 has been designated a national
holiday to commemorate the day the United States laid down its claim to
be a free and independent nation.
