The Lee Resolution was the July 2, 1776 resolution that preceded the Declaration of Independence.
Also called the Resolution for Independence, it formally stated that the Thirteen Colonies were “free and independent States” and separate from the British Empire. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed the resolution after receiving instructions from the Fifth Virginia Convention.
The Second Continental Congress approved the independence resolution on July 2, 1776. Congress then continued debating and revising the explanatory Declaration of Independence, approving that document on July 4. The two dates are therefore related but not interchangeable: July 2 concerned the formal decision for independence, while July 4 marked approval of the declaration’s text.
John Adams famously predicted that July 2 would be remembered as the great anniversary, but July 4 became the date celebrated as Independence Day because it appeared on the printed declaration. That distinction makes the Lee Resolution an important predecessor in the story commemorated by America250.