New York abstained from voting for the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
The New York delegation had not yet received authorization from its colonial government to vote for independence. The other twelve colonies voted in favor of the resolution at that stage, while New York later authorized its delegates to support independence.
This detail is often overlooked because all thirteen colonies became associated with the Declaration and the revolutionary cause. The abstention did not mean New York opposed independence permanently; it reflected the timing of instructions reaching the delegation.
The vote took place before the engrossed parchment was signed. Most historians place the principal signing on August 2, when delegates from the thirteen colonies added their names to the document that became the defining text of the America250 commemoration.