The Lee Resolution formally declared the American colonies independent before the United States Declaration of Independence was adopted.
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the resolution in the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776. Its central proposal stated that the United Colonies should be free and independent states, ending their political connection with Great Britain.
Congress approved the independence resolution on July 2, 1776. It then debated and revised the Declaration of Independence, which explained the reasons for the break and presented the decision to a wider audience. The Declaration was adopted two days later, on July 4.
This sequence explains a frequent historical confusion. July 2 was the legal and political decision for independence, while July 4 became the celebrated date because Congress approved the Declaration’s final text then. America250 commemorates the 250th anniversary of both closely linked congressional actions.