Lee Resolution
The Lee Resolution, formally introduced by Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, to the Second Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, proposed that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States," absolving them from allegiance to the British Crown and dissolving all political connections with Great Britain.[1][2] This motion, comprising three interconnected parts—a declaration of independence, advocacy for foreign alliances, and a framework for confederation—marked a pivotal shift toward formal separation from British rule, galvanizing colonial representatives amid escalating conflicts following the Battles of Lexington and Concord.[1][3] Though initially deferred for debate to allow further preparation, the resolution spurred the formation of a committee, chaired by Thomas Jefferson, to draft a formal declaration justifying independence.[1] On July 2, 1776, after vigorous deliberations, the Continental Congress adopted the independence clause of Lee's proposal by a vote of 12 colonies in favor, with New York abstaining, effectively endorsing the severance of ties with Britain two days before the public proclamation via the Declaration of Independence on July 4.[4][5] The resolution's emphasis on self-governance and mutual confederation underscored the causal momentum from colonial grievances—rooted in taxation without representation and military aggressions—toward sovereign nationhood, influencing the subsequent Articles of Confederation and the enduring federal structure of the United States.[2][6]Historical Context
Escalating Tensions with Britain
Following the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains to stabilize relations with Native American tribes and reduce imperial defense costs after acquiring vast territories from France.[7] This measure frustrated colonists who sought to expand onto lands they considered open for settlement under prior charters granting property rights and self-governance, fostering early resentment over restrictions on economic opportunity without colonial input.[8] To offset war debts exceeding £130 million, Parliament then enacted the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765, imposing the first direct tax on the colonies by requiring stamps on legal documents, newspapers, and other printed materials, which colonists protested as an infringement on their right to no taxation without representation in Parliament.[9] Resistance escalated with riots in Boston and elsewhere, the formation of the Sons of Liberty, and the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765, where nine colonies declared the tax unconstitutional, leading to its repeal in 1766 but accompanied by the Declaratory Act affirming Parliament's authority to legislate for the colonies in all cases.[10][11] Subsequent revenue measures intensified colonial opposition, as the Townshend Acts of June 1767 levied duties on imports like glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea to fund royal governors' salaries, thereby undermining assemblies' control over executive independence and perceived as another violation of charter rights to internal taxation.[12] Non-importation agreements spread across colonies, crippling British trade by 1768, while tensions in Boston culminated in the March 5, 1770, clash known as the Boston Massacre, where British troops fired on a crowd protesting their presence, killing five civilians amid enforcement of the acts.[13] Partial repeal of the Townshend duties in 1770 except on tea failed to quell unrest, as the 1773 Tea Act granted the East India Company a monopoly that undercut colonial merchants and implicitly enforced the remaining tax, prompting the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, where Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea valued at £9,000 to reject parliamentary overreach.[14] In retaliation, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (termed Intolerable Acts by colonists) in 1774, closing Boston Harbor until restitution, revoking Massachusetts' charter to centralize governance under royal appointees, mandating quartering of troops, and extending Quebec's boundaries, actions that collectively aimed to isolate and punish resistance but instead highlighted Britain's intent to erode self-rule.[15] The First Continental Congress convened on September 5, 1774, with delegates from twelve colonies issuing the Declaration and Resolves, asserting rights to life, liberty, property, and assembly under natural law and charters while petitioning King George III for redress of grievances like standing armies and trade restrictions without consent.[16] Britain's rejection of these overtures, including the Suffolk Resolves calling for defiance, signaled irreconcilable conflict, as royal governor Thomas Gage fortified Boston and sought to disarm patriots.[17] Escalation peaked on April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, where approximately 700 British regulars under Lt. Col. Francis Smith marched to seize colonial arms caches, encountering minutemen at Lexington—where eight Americans died in the first shots—and facing sustained guerrilla fire at Concord and along the retreat to Boston, resulting in 273 British casualties versus 93 colonial, marking the war's onset as armed defense against perceived tyranny.[18][19] These events underscored a causal progression from fiscal impositions denying consent to military coercion, eroding any prospect of reconciliation and galvanizing colonial unity against imperial authority.[8]Virginia's Instructions to Delegates
The Fifth Virginia Convention convened on May 6, 1776, in Williamsburg, amid growing colonial resolve to sever ties with Britain following the failure of reconciliation efforts. As the colony's legislative body, it prioritized establishing independent governance structures, reflecting Virginia's commitment to self-determination at the state level. On May 15, 1776, the convention unanimously adopted resolutions that not only authorized the preparation of a state constitution and Declaration of Rights but also issued explicit directives to Virginia's delegates in the Continental Congress.[20][21] These instructions mandated that delegates propose a congressional resolution declaring the united colonies "free and independent States, 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." Additionally, the directives called for motions to form a confederation among the colonies and to pursue treaties with foreign powers for mutual defense and commerce, underscoring the convention's vision for a coordinated yet sovereign postcolonial order. This proactive stance positioned Virginia's representatives, including Richard Henry Lee, to initiate national independence proceedings rather than merely react to them.[21][22] Edmund Pendleton, elected president of the convention on its opening day, played a central role in shaping these instructions, which exemplified decentralized authority by empowering colonial assemblies to guide federal actions against monarchical centralization. Virginia's status as the largest and most populous southern colony amplified the resolutions' impact, rallying delegates from agrarian states wary of northern dominance and providing a template for other assemblies to assert local prerogatives in the independence movement. Convention records document attendance by key figures like Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, ensuring broad representation from Virginia's counties and boroughs.[20]Role of Colonial Assemblies
Colonial assemblies across the thirteen colonies advanced the momentum toward independence through localized resolutions, instructions to congressional delegates, and practical measures for defense, demonstrating a decentralized process driven by regional grievances rather than centralized directive. These bodies, often convened as provincial congresses or extra-legal assemblies in response to dissolved royal governments, aggregated sentiments from town meetings and county conventions, where representatives debated British encroachments such as the Coercive Acts and military occupations. By early 1776, assemblies in several colonies explicitly empowered their delegates to pursue separation, while others organized militias and supplies, amassing forces that by mid-1776 exceeded 20,000 men continent-wide through quotas and enlistments coordinated via committees of safety.[23][24] This grassroots structuring—evident in delegate selections from diverse locales including farmers, merchants, and professionals—underscored broad legitimacy, as voting in bodies like North Carolina's Fourth Provincial Congress achieved unanimity on key measures despite representing 35 counties and 8 districts with 83 delegates.[25] North Carolina's Fourth Provincial Congress, meeting from April 4 to May 14, 1776, set a precedent by unanimously adopting the Halifax Resolves on April 12, authorizing its delegates to concur in any colonial vote for independence or confederation, marking the first such official endorsement among the colonies.[26] Similarly, Rhode Island's General Assembly on May 4, 1776, resolved to renounce allegiance to King George III and prohibit oaths to him, establishing the colony as the initial legislature to formally sever ties with the crown through legislative act. South Carolina's Provincial Congress followed on March 26, 1776, by adopting a constitution that created an independent executive and council, effectively repudiating royal authority and instituting self-governance three months prior to national declarations.[27] These actions reflected empirical responses to proximate threats, such as British naval blockades and loyalist uprisings, with assemblies funding ranger companies and minutemen detachments—for instance, North Carolina authorizing two ranger companies of 75 men each in April 1776—to secure frontiers and ports.[28] Pennsylvania exemplified varied pacing, as its assembly clung to reconciliation instructions through early 1776, directing delegates on June 8 against independence votes amid internal divisions between Quaker moderates and radical frontiersmen.[29] However, mounting petitions from Philadelphia committees and rural counties prompted the Provincial Conference on June 18 to deem the assembly incompetent for exigencies, convening a constitutional convention that shifted toward support by empowering military committees to raise 4,000 associators.[30] Such preparations, including Pennsylvania's assembly allocating funds for powder and arms in 1775-1776, indicated causal escalation from defensive necessities to political rupture, with delegate compositions tilting toward pro-independence majorities in ad hoc bodies as local elections reflected war-wearied resolve. This patchwork of assembly initiatives, varying by colony's exposure to conflict—southern ports versus northern sieges—countered centralized elite narratives by evidencing sustained, multi-sited commitment grounded in self-preservation and accumulated redress failures.[31]Introduction of the Resolution
Richard Henry Lee's Presentation
Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia planter and politician from the prominent Lee family, emerged as a key advocate for colonial independence, drawing on Enlightenment principles emphasizing natural rights and resistance to tyranny.[32] Born in 1732 to Thomas Lee, a colonial governor, Lee managed extensive plantations while serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he opposed British policies like the Stamp Act of 1765 through resolutions asserting colonial rights. His political writings and speeches reflected influences from thinkers like John Locke, prioritizing liberty and self-governance over monarchical authority.[33] On June 7, 1776, during a session of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania State House, Lee formally presented his resolution for independence, acting on instructions from the Virginia Convention issued on May 15, 1776.[1] The motion, seconded by Massachusetts delegate John Adams, proposed a comprehensive separation from Britain encompassing three interconnected elements: declaring the colonies free and independent states absolved of allegiance to the Crown, pursuing foreign alliances for support, and establishing a confederation among the colonies to coordinate governance and defense.[34] This presentation marked the first explicit call in Congress for outright independence, shifting deliberations from reconciliation to rupture, as recorded in the official journals.[35] Lee's initiative, rooted in Virginia's escalating defiance, catalyzed the assembly's pivot toward formal nation-building.[1]Exact Text and Components
The Lee Resolution, introduced on June 7, 1776, comprised three interconnected resolves articulating the colonies' claim to sovereignty and outlining immediate strategic measures.[2] The full text, as recorded in the Continental Congress journals and corroborated by delegate accounts, reads as follows: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. Resolved, That it is expedient to prepare and bring into effect a plan to form a confederacy of these colonies; and that a committee be appointed for that purpose. Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare a plan of treaties to be negotiated with foreign Powers, for the purpose of forming alliances.[1][34]The first resolve formed the declarative core, asserting the colonies' status as sovereign entities entitled to self-governance, with explicit severance from British authority.[2] Its phrasing—"free and independent States"—emphasized plural state-level autonomy rather than a unitary entity, grounding the claim in an inherent right ("of right ought to be") while nullifying monarchical bonds through absolution of allegiance and dissolution of ties.[1] The second resolve addressed confederation as a pragmatic step for unified colonial action post-independence, directing preparation of a binding framework to coordinate defense and governance without preempting state sovereignty.[34] This component underscored the resolution's intent to balance separation from Britain with internal cohesion, tasking a committee to draft specifics for ratification.[2] The third resolve focused on foreign relations, instructing a committee to devise treaty frameworks for alliances, recognizing military and economic vulnerabilities in isolation from European powers.[1] Together, these elements integrated ideological severance with operational necessities, as evidenced in manuscript copies and congressional records maintaining consistent wording across variants.[34]