Lee rises in Congress and calls the colonies free and independent states; Adams seconds the motion
By the spring of 1776, a majority in the Second Continental Congress still hadn't authorized independence — but Virginia had. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee rose before Congress in Philadelphia and read aloud a three-part resolution: that the colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States," that foreign alliances should be sought, and that a plan of confederation be prepared. John Adams seconded the motion. Congress wasn't ready to vote — delegates from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York lacked instructions — so a decision was postponed three weeks. In the meantime, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a declaration in case the resolution passed. It did, on July 2.
Lee's resolution did something the Declaration of Independence technically did not: it was the formal legal act by which Congress severed ties with Britain. John Adams predicted July 2 — the day the resolution passed — would become the great American holiday. He was off by two days. The text of Lee's resolution was incorporated into the conclusion of the Declaration itself, binding the two documents permanently together as the twin birth certificates of the United States.
QWhy was Richard Henry Lee not present when Congress voted on his own resolution for independence on July 2, 1776?
Lee had returned to Virginia before the vote was taken. Throughout his congressional service, he was repeatedly sidelined by debilitating illnesses, including epilepsy, which forced him to travel home to recuperate. He had introduced the resolution on June 7, but by the time the three-week postponement expired and the vote was held, he was gone. He did return to Congress in time to sign the Declaration of Independence — his own motion's formal justification — when he came back later that summer. His name is on the document he set in motion but did not live to vote for on its deciding day.
QWhat did John Adams predict about July 2, 1776 — and how exactly did he get it wrong?
On July 3, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that 'the second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America' and predicted it would be celebrated annually with 'pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations.' He was describing July 2 — the day Lee's resolution of independence passed — not July 4, when the Declaration's text was finalized. Americans immediately began celebrating on July 4 instead, the date of the Declaration's adoption and publication. Adams died on July 4, 1826 — the fiftieth anniversary of that date — reportedly unaware that Thomas Jefferson had died just hours before him.
QHow did a 17th-century Virginia land dispute shape the exact wording Richard Henry Lee read to Congress on June 7, 1776?
Lee did not write the resolution's language himself — or at least not entirely. He introduced it 'after receiving instructions and wording' from the Fifth Virginia Convention and its president, Edmund Pendleton. Some sources suggest Lee used the Convention's language almost verbatim. The Virginia Convention had passed its own resolution on May 15, 1776, instructing its delegates to propose exactly this action. That resolution, in turn, reflected years of Virginia political culture around sovereignty and self-governance — a tradition Lee had been part of since at least 1766, when he drafted the Westmoreland Resolution against the Stamp Act at a meeting in Leedstown, Virginia.
