About the Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 1776, the United States officially declared its independence from the British Empire when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.  

The official split from Britain was years in the making. Following years of protest against British policies—including the famous rallying cry, “No Taxation Without Representation” — unrest in Boston led to the Boston Tea Party. In turn, the British government enacted the Coercive Acts, closing down the Boston Harbor, curbing representative government, undermining the role of the jury, and requiring the quartering of British troops. On Sept. 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to consider a response. After seven weeks of debates, the Congress agreed to a boycott of British goods within the colonies as a sign of protest. It also crafted a formal petition to King George III that outlined the colonists’ grievances. 

In May 1775, the Second Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia. Violence had broken out near Boston with the battles of Lexington and Concord. Delegates from Georgia joined the Second Continental Congress, as did Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The new Congress became focused on the war effort, establishing an army, and hoping for a constructive response from the King and Parliament. Then, in August 1775, King George III declared his American subjects as “engaged in open and avowed rebellion.” 

During the first part of 1776, the publication of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” found a welcome audience as more Americans saw the need for a clear break from the crown. On May 15, 1776, the Virginia Convention ordered its delegates in Congress to propose that the United Colonies become “free and independent states." On June 7, 1776, One of the Virginia delegates, Richard Henry Lee, then presented a resolution in Congress that called for independence: 

“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.”  

John Adams seconded the motion. 

In response to the Lee Resolution, Congress voted 7-to-5 on June 10, 1776, to postpone a vote on independence until early July, and called for a recess to allow delegates to discuss independence back home. 

The next day, Congress appointed a “Committee of Five”—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman—to draft a Declaration of Independence. The Committee chose Jefferson as the primary author. Jefferson himself later admitted that he was merely looking to reflect the “mind of Americans”—bringing together the core principles at the heart of the American Revolution. 

On Congress’s return on July 1, 1776, the first vote of Congress on the Lee Resolution failed, with Pennsylvania and South Carolina voting no and Delaware deadlocked. In addition, New York had orders to abstain from voting until receiving instructions from its leaders. 

Finally, on July 2, 1776, Congress reversed course, declaring its independence from Great Britain when the Lee Resolution passed on a second vote, with Delaware, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina voting in the affirmative and New York abstaining. Congress then debated the language of the Declaration of Independence until July 4, 1776. 

The Declaration was originally crafted by Jefferson with edits from Adams, Franklin, and Congress. The final version included its famous Preamble, which said that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ” This language brings together the principles at the core of the American Revolution: liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness, and government by consent. The Declaration also stated a list of grievances against King George III, explaining to the world why the American colonies were separating from Great Britain. 

On July 6, 1776, the Pennsylvania Evening Post printed the Declaration with the signature of John Hancock, president of Congress, but no one else. Two days later, the Declaration was read in public in Philadelphia. 

In all, 56 delegates would sign the Declaration of Independence on various dates. Many members of the Continental Congress signed an engrossed version of the Declaration in Philadelphia on August 2, 1776. John Hancock’s famous signature was in the middle, because of his status as president of the Congress. The other delegates signed by state delegation, starting in the upper-right column, and then proceeding in five columns, arranged from the northernmost state (New Hampshire) to the southernmost (Georgia). 

Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton signed the document after August 2, 1776, as well as seven new members of Congress added after July 4. Seven other members of the July 4 meeting never signed the document. Thomas McKean was the last delegate to sign in January 1777. 

On January 18, 1777, Congress approved the public printing of the Declaration with the names of all the signers listed for the first time. 

Today, early copies of the Declaration are rare to find. Of the broadside version printed on July 4, 1776, by John Dunlap for Congress, only 26 survive. The only handwritten version, the engrossed version signed on August 2, 1776, resides at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.