June 7

Richard Henry Lee (right) was a Virginian and the sixth president of the Continental Congress. On the 7th in 1776, he presented to the second Continental Congress a resolution, which has come to be known as the Lee Resolution. The resolution read in part “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.” When the resolution was put to a vote 12 of the 13 colonies voted to approve it. The single exception was New York, which chose to abstain. And some people wonder where New Yorkers get their contentious and disagreeable natures.

John Adams’s view of the work of the congress was that “I believe that if it was moved and seconded that we should come to a resolution that three and two make five, we should be entertained with logic and rhetoric, law, history, politics, and mathematics concerning the subject for two whole days, and then we should pass the resolution unanimously in the affirmative.”