On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress postponed debate on Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for Independence for three weeks to July1, and resolved

that a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration to the effect of the said first resolution, which is in these words: ‘‘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 connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

Source: Vol. V, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office (1904) at p. 428-29, accessed at https://archive.org/details/us_congress_continental/lljc005/page/427/mode/2up