Who proposed the Lee Resolution that Congress adopted on July 2, 1776?

Richard Henry Lee proposed the Lee Resolution that Congress adopted on July 2, 1776.

Lee, a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress, introduced the resolution after receiving instructions from the Fifth Virginia Convention. Its first part declared that the colonies were free and independent states, separate from the British Empire.

The resolution is closely connected with the Declaration of Independence, but the two documents were not the same. Congress approved Lee’s independence resolution on July 2, while it adopted the Declaration’s final text on July 4. The Declaration explained the reasons for independence and announced the decision publicly.

Lee’s resolution also included proposals concerning foreign alliances and a confederation. Congress considered those portions separately. A common mix-up is crediting Thomas Jefferson with proposing independence itself; Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration, whereas Lee formally introduced the independence resolution.