The 1776 resolution that preceded the Declaration of Independence was the Lee Resolution.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the resolution in the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776. It proposed that the United Colonies should be free and independent states, that foreign alliances should be considered, and that a plan of confederation should be prepared.
Congress adopted the independence portion on July 2, 1776. A committee then prepared the Declaration of Independence, which Congress adopted on July 4. America250 centers on the latter date, but the Lee Resolution is an essential earlier step in the political process that produced the celebrated document.