The
Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the
Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the
thirteen American colonies, then at war with
Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the
British Empire.
John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A
committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. Adams persuaded the committee to select
Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document,
which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to
declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War. The
Independence Day of the
United States of America is celebrated on July 4, the day Congress approved the wording of the Declaration.
powered by
Loading More Stories
