Ashleyt_independence+document_wikipedia

  = The Declaration of Independence = || = [|John Adams] = = = = [|Benjamin Franklin] = || = = || = The [|United States] **Declaration of Independence** was an act of the [|Second Continental Congress], adopted on [|July 4], [|1776], which declared that the [|Thirteen Colonies] in [|North America] were "Free and Independent States" and that "all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved." The document, formally entitled **The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America**,[|[1]] explained the justifications for separation from the British crown, and was an expansion of [|Richard Henry Lee]'s [|Resolution] (passed by Congress on [|July 2]), which first proclaimed independence. An engrossed copy of the Declaration was signed by most of the delegates on [|August 2][|National Archives and Records Administration] in [|Washington, D.C.] =
 * = United States Declaration of Independence = ||
 * =   =
 * =** Created ** = || = July 4, 1776 = ||
 * =** Location ** = || = [|National Archives and Records Administration] = ||
 * =** Authors ** = || =<span style="color: rgb(26, 44, 244)"> [|Thomas Jefferson] =
 * =<span style="color: rgb(26, 44, 244)">** Signers ** = || =<span style="color: rgb(26, 44, 244)"> [|Continental Congress] = ||
 * =** <span style="color: rgb(26, 44, 244)">Purpose **= || =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; color: rgb(26, 61, 234)"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(13, 38, 242)">Declare independence from [|Great Britain]  =

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; color: rgb(24, 42, 236)"> and is now on display in the =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; color: rgb(24, 42, 236)"> The Declaration is considered to be the founding document of the [|United States of America], where July 4 is celebrated as [|Independence Day] and the nation's birthday. At the time the Declaration was issued, the American colonies were "united" in declaring their independence from Great Britain. [|John Hancock], as the elected President of Congress, was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. It was not until the following month on August 2nd that the remaining 55 other delegates began to sign the document.[|[2]] = =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; color: rgb(24, 42, 236)">[|US President] [|Abraham Lincoln] succinctly explained the central importance of the Declaration to [|American history] in his [|Gettysburg Address] of 1863: = =<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; color: rgb(24, 42, 236)">//"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that [|all men are created equal]."// =