The Lee Resolution was the 1776 resolution that provided the Continental Congress’s formal vote for independence.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the resolution on June 7, 1776. It proposed that the thirteen colonies should be declared free and independent states, that foreign alliances should be sought, and that a plan for confederation should be prepared. Congress approved the independence portion on July 2, 1776.
The Declaration of Independence followed as the public explanation of that decision. Thomas Jefferson’s drafting committee prepared the document, and Congress adopted the text on July 4. Thus, July 2 and July 4 mark different steps in the same constitutional and political process.
The Lee Resolution is sometimes mistakenly treated as another name for the Declaration. It was instead the congressional resolution authorizing independence; the Declaration expressed the reasons and principles supporting that decision.