Political Quotes

“on June 7, 1776, Virginian Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion in the Second Continental Congress to declare the 13 American colonies' independence from Great Britain. Four days later, Congress established a committee--the Committee of Five--to draft a statement proclaiming and justifying American independence. The Committee consisted of John Adams (Massachusetts), Benjamin Franklin (Pennsylvania), Thomas Jefferson (Virginia), Robert Livingston (New York), and Roger Sherman (Connecticut) and assigned the duty of writing the first draft to Thomas Jefferson. The Committee left no minutes so we aren't sure how many iterations of the document were drafted before the Committee presented the final version to Congress on June 28, 1776--an action immortalized by the artist John Trumbull in a painting that hangs in the Capitol Rotunda. On Monday, July 1, 1776, the Committee of the Whole debated the Lee Resolution. Jefferson wrote that they were ``exhausted by a debate of nine hours, during which all the powers of the soul had been distended with the magnitude of the object.'' The Committee of the Whole voted 9- 2 to adopt the Lee Resolution. The following day--July 2, 1776-- Congress heard the report of the Committee of the Whole and declared the sovereign status of the American colonies. The Declaration of Independence was given its second reading before Congress adjourned for the day. On July 3, 1776, the Declaration received its third reading and final edits.…”