Lee Resolution

"The resolution for independency agreed to July 2, 1776". The marks at the bottom right indicate the twelve colonies that voted for independence. The thirteenth colony, New York, abstained.
Richard Henry Lee proposed the resolution on June 7, 1776.

The Lee Resolution, also known as the Resolution of Independence, was a three–part resolve by the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, to declare the United Colonies rightfully independent of the British Empire, to establish a plan for ensuing American foreign relations, and to establish a plan of a confederation to unite them officially. The resolution is named for Richard Henry Lee of Virginia who proposed it to Congress, after receiving instructions from the Virginia Convention and its President, Edmund Pendleton. Some sources indicate Lee used, almost verbatim, the language from the instructions in his resolution. Voting on the first part of the resolution was delayed for several weeks while state support and legislative instruction for independence were consolidated, but the press of events indicated the other less-discussed parts should immediately proceed. On June 11 Congress decided to establish three committees to develop the resolution's parts, and appointed a Committee of Five (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston) to prepare a document to explain the reasons for independence. The following day, another committee of five (John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Benjamin Harrison V, and Robert Morris) was appointed to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed to foreign powers, and the third committee of thirteen members was appointed from each colony to prepare a draft of a constitution for confederation of the states.

The independence portion of the resolution was the first approved by Congress, on July 2, 1776. News of its adoption was published that evening in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and the next day in the Pennsylvania Gazette. The text of the document formally announcing this action, the United States Declaration of Independence, was approved on July 4th, 1776 which is celebrated as Independence Day. However, the document wasn't signed by all delegates of the United States until August 2nd.

The committee drafting a plan of confederation, chaired by John Dickinson, presented their initial results to Congress on July 12, 1776. Long debates would follow on such issues as sovereignty, the exact powers to be given the confederate government, whether to have a judiciary, and voting procedures.[1] The final draft of the Articles of Confederation were prepared during the summer of 1777 and approved by Congress for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777, after a year of debate.[2] Although in use from that time, it would be almost four years before final ratification by all states, on March 1, 1781.

The committee appointed to prepare a plan of treaties made its first report on July 18, largely in the writing of John Adams; while prompt action was planned, it was delayed, and a limited printing of the document was authorized. Over the next five weeks it would be reviewed and amended by Congress. On August 27, the amended plan of treaties was referred back to the committee to develop instructions pursuant to the amendments, and two additional members (Richard Henry Lee and James Wilson) were added to the committee; two days later the committee was empowered to prepare further instructions as deemed proper, and report back to Congress. The formal version of the plan of treaties was adopted on September 17. On September 24, Congress approved negotiating instructions for commissioners to obtain a treaty with France, based on the template provided in the plan of treaties; the next day Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson were elected commissioners to the court of France.[3] Alliance with France was considered vital if the war with England was to be won and the newly declared country was to survive.

Towards independence

When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, few colonists in British North America openly advocated independence from Great Britain. Support for independence grew steadily in 1776, especially after the publication of Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense in January of that year. In the Second Continental Congress, the movement towards independence was guided principally by an informal alliance of delegates eventually known as the "Adams-Lee Junto", after Samuel Adams and John Adams of Massachusetts and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia.

On May 15, 1776, the revolutionary Virginia Convention, then meeting in Williamsburg, passed a resolution instructing Virginia's delegates in the Continental Congress "to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain".[4] In accordance with those instructions, on June 7, Richard Henry Lee proposed the resolution to Congress and it was seconded by John Adams.

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

Congress as a whole was not yet ready to declare independence at that moment, because the delegates from some of the colonies, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York, had not yet been authorized to vote for independence.[5] Voting on the first clause of Lee's resolution was therefore postponed for three weeks while advocates of independence worked to build support in the colonial governments for the resolution.[6] Meanwhile, a Committee of Five was appointed to prepare a formal declaration so that it would be ready when independence, which almost everyone recognized was now inevitable, was approved. The committee prepared a declaration of independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, and presented it to Congress on June 28, 1776.

Approval and declaration

The declaration was set aside while the resolution of independence was debated for several days. The vote on the independence section of the Lee resolution had been postponed until Monday, July 1st, when it was taken up by the Committee of the Whole. At the request of South Carolina, the resolution was not acted upon until the following day in the hope of securing unanimity. A trial vote had been tested on the 1st where it was found that South Carolina and Pennsylvania were in the negative, with Delaware split in a tie between its two delegates. The vote was held on July 2nd, with critical changes happening between Monday and Tuesday. Edward Rutledge was able to persuade South Carolina delegates to vote yea, two Pennsylvania delegates were persuaded to be absent, and Caesar Rodney had been sent for through the night to break Delaware's tie.[7] So Lee's resolution of independence was approved by twelve of the thirteen colonies. Delegates from New York still lacked instructions to vote for independence, and so they abstained on this vote, although on July 9 the New York Provincial Congress would vote to "join with the other colonies in supporting" independence.[8]

Although it would shortly be outshone by the much more famous declaration, the Lee Resolution's passage was contemporaneously reported as the colonies' definitive declaration of independence from Great Britain. The evening of July 2, the Pennsylvania Evening Post reported:

This day the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES.[9]

The Pennsylvania Gazette followed suit the next day with its own brief report:

Yesterday, the

CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and

INDEPENDENT STATES.[10]

After passing the resolution of independence on July 2, Congress turned its attention to the text of the declaration. Over several days of debate, Congress made a number of alterations to the text, including adding the wording of Lee's resolution of independence to the conclusion. The final text of the declaration was approved by Congress on July 4 and sent off to be printed.

John Adams wrote his wife Abigail on July 3 about the resolution of independence:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.[11]

Adams's prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated Independence Day on July 4, the date the much-publicized Declaration of Independence was approved, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was adopted.

As noted above, the two latter parts of the Lee Resolution were not passed until months later. The second part regarding the formation of foreign alliances was approved in September 1776, and the third part regarding a plan of confederation was approved in November 1777, but finally ratified in 1781.

Congressional journal entries

The following are entries relating to the resolution of independence and the Declaration of Independence in the Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, from American Memory, published by the Library of Congress:

Notes

  1. ↑ Jensen, Merrill (1959). The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional History of the American Revolution, 1774–1781. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 127–84. ISBN 978-0-299-00204-6.
  2. ↑ Schwarz, Frederic D. (February–March 2006). "225 Years Ago". American Heritage.
  3. ↑ Milestones: 1776-1783: The Model Treaty, 1776, Department of State, Office of the Historian. from archive.org
  4. ↑ Boyd, Evolution of the Text, 18; Maier, American Scripture, 63. For text of the May 15 Virginia resolution, see Yale.edu.
  5. ↑ Maier, American Scripture, 42.
  6. ↑ Maier, American Scripture, 43.
  7. ↑ History of Delaware : 1609-1888: General history, by John Thomas Scharf
  8. ↑ Burnett, Continental Congress, 191.
  9. ↑ Pennsylvania Evening Post, July 2, 1776
  10. ↑ Pennsylvania Gazette, July 3, 1776
  11. ↑ Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, "Had a Declaration..." [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. Masshist.org, Butterfield, L.H., ed. Adams Family Correspondence. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963.

References

External links

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