Concept
The Declaration of Independence, headed The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the founding document of the United States. It was adopted on July 4, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The declaration explains to the world why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule. The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who came to be known as the nation's Founding Fathers. The signatories include delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The declaration became one of the most circulated and widely reprinted documents in early American history. The Committee of Five drafted the declaration to be ready when Congress voted on independence. John Adams, a leading proponent of independence, persuaded the Committee of Five to charge Thomas Jefferson with writing the document's original draft, which the Second Continental Congress then edited. The declaration was a formal explanation of why the Continental Congress voted to declare American independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, a year after the American Revolutionary War began in April 1775. The Lee Resolution for independence was passed unanimously by the Congress on July 2, 1776. After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. Jefferson's original draft is currently preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., complete with changes made by Adams and Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson's notes of changes made by Congress. The best-known version of the Declaration is the signed copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.
