On June 7, 1776, (a Friday), Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee, on instructions from the Fifth Virginia Convention, formally proposed independence to the Second Continental Congress; John Adams seconded. Lee’s was the first formal independence proposal and can be seen in its original form at the National Archives website.

No action was taken that day, but this proposal ultimately kickstarted the adoption of the Declaration of Independence itself a little over three weeks later. You can follow the day-by-day proceedings of Congress during this period through the journals kept by Secretary Charles Thomson (and published by Robert Aitken in 1777), but you won’t see much on the surface about the behind-the-scenes work on independence and the Declaration.

But you can imagine what this one act stirred and eventually became – from such seemingly small beginnings, enormous things one day come! You can also get a more focused plot summary from Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes of Proceedings in the Continental Congress,” including the submitted draft of June 28. As we approach the 250th itself less than a month now, take time to trace some of the Declaration’s formation in the primary documents — and don’t forget to read the Declaration itself. And for that? Go the Dunlap broadside, its first printing.

On Friday, June 7, 1776, Congress dealt with several ongoing matters in the conflict: they contemplated compensation for the owner of a sloop seized by Commodore Esek Hopkins on behalf of the United Colonies, considered a resolution from South Carolina concerning battalions, and appointed a committee to investigate claims of defective gunpowder manufacture at Oswald Eve’s mill. And if Thomson’s records are correct, that’s when Lee introduced the proposal for independence. Then, after deferring consideration until the following morning, Congress went on to receive (and table) a report from a committee assigned to investigate the counterfeiting of bills of credit.

In Thomson’s words, “members [were] enjoined to attend punctually at ten o’clock” to consider Independency.

Countdown to Semiquincentennial: Number 1, June 7
By Michael G. Ditmore