Signing of the United states Declaration of Independence - wikipedia Signing of the United states Declaration of Independence Not to be confused with John Trumbull 's painting Declaration of Independence. The signatures on the Declaration of Independence The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence occurred ( primarily ) on August 2, 1776 at the Pennsylvania State House ( Independence Hall ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress represented the 13 former colonies which had declared themselves the `` United States of America, '' and they endorsed the Declaration of Independence which the Congress had approved on July 4, 1776. The Declaration proclaimed that the Thirteen Colonies then at war with Great Britain were now sovereign states and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. The signers ' names are grouped by state, with the exception of President of the Continental Congress John Hancock ; the states are arranged geographically from north to south. The final draft of the Declaration was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, the date of its signing has long been disputed. Most historians have concluded that it was signed on August 2, 1776, nearly a month after its adoption, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed. Contents 1 Date of signing 2 List of signers 3 Signer details 4 Stories and legends 5 References 5.1 Citations 5.2 Sources Date of signing The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America, by Armand - Dumaresq ( c. 1873 ) has been hanging in the White House since the late 1980s The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, with 12 of the 13 colonies voting in favor and New York abstaining. The date that the Declaration was signed has long been the subject of debate. Within a decade after the event, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams all wrote that the Declaration was signed by Congress the day it was adopted on July 4, 1776. That assertion is seemingly confirmed by the signed copy of the Declaration, which is dated July 4. Additional support for the July 4 date is provided by the Journals of Congress, the official public record of the Continental Congress. The proceedings for 1776 were first published in 1777, and the entry for July 4 states that the Declaration was engrossed and signed on that date ( the official copy was handwritten ). In 1796, signer Thomas McKean disputed that the Declaration had been signed on July 4, pointing out that some signers were not present, including several who were not even elected to Congress until after that date. `` ( N ) o person signed it on that day nor for many days after '', he later wrote. His claim gained support when the Secret Journals of Congress were published in 1821. The Secret Journals contained two previously unpublished entries about the Declaration. On July 15, New York 's delegates heard that they 'd gotten permission from their convention to agree to the declaration. The Secret Journals entry for July 19 reads : Resolved That the Declaration passed on the 4th be fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and stile of `` The unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of America '' & that the same when engrossed be signed by every member of Congress. The entry for August 2 states : The declaration of Independence being engrossed & compared at the table was signed by the Members. In 1884, historian Mellen Chamberlain argued that these entries indicated that the famous signed version of the Declaration had been created following the July 19 resolution, and had not been signed by Congress until August 2. Subsequent research has confirmed that many of the signers had not been present in Congress on July 4, and that some delegates may have added their signatures even after August 2. Both Jefferson and Adams never wavered from their belief that the signing ceremony took place on July 4, yet most historians have accepted the argument which David McCullough articulates in his biography of John Adams : `` No such scene, with all the delegates present, ever occurred at Philadelphia. '' The Syng inkstand was used during the signing of the Declaration Legal historian Wilfred Ritz concluded in 1986 that about 34 delegates signed the Declaration on July 4, and that the others signed on or after August 2. Ritz argued that the engrossed copy of the Declaration was signed by Congress on July 4, as Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin had stated, and that it was implausible that all three men had been mistaken. Ritz believed that McKean 's testimony was questionable, and that historians had misinterpreted the July 19 resolution. According to Ritz, this resolution did not call for a new document to be created, but rather for the existing one to be given a new title, which was necessary after New York had joined the other 12 states in declaring independence. Ritz reasoned that the phrase `` signed by every member of Congress '' in the July 19 resolution meant that delegates who had not signed the Declaration on the 4th were now required to do so. List of signers Fifty - six delegates eventually signed the Declaration of Independence : President of Congress 1. John Hancock ( Massachusetts Bay ) New Hampshire 2. Josiah Bartlett 3. William Whipple 4. Matthew Thornton Massachusetts Bay 5. Samuel Adams 6. John Adams 7. Robert Treat Paine 8. Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 9. Stephen Hopkins 10. William Ellery Connecticut 11. Roger Sherman 12. Samuel Huntington 13. William Williams 14. Oliver Wolcott New York 15. William Floyd 16. Philip Livingston 17. Francis Lewis 18. Lewis Morris New Jersey 19. Richard Stockton 20. John Witherspoon 21. Francis Hopkinson 22. John Hart 23. Abraham Clark Pennsylvania 24. Robert Morris 25. Benjamin Rush 26. Benjamin Franklin 27. John Morton 28. George Clymer 29. James Smith 30. George Taylor 31. James Wilson 32. George Ross Delaware 33. Caesar Rodney 34. George Read 35. Thomas McKean Maryland 36. Samuel Chase 37. William Paca 38. Thomas Stone 39. Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia 40. George Wythe 41. Richard Henry Lee 42. Thomas Jefferson 43. Benjamin Harrison 44. Thomas Nelson, Jr. 45. Francis Lightfoot Lee 46. Carter Braxton North Carolina 47. William Hooper 48. Joseph Hewes 49. John Penn South Carolina 50. Edward Rutledge 51. Thomas Heyward, Jr. 52. Thomas Lynch, Jr. 53. Arthur Middleton Georgia 54. Button Gwinnett 55. Lyman Hall 56. George Walton Signer details Eight delegates never signed the Declaration, out of the approximately 50 who are thought to have been present in Congress during the voting on independence in early July 1776 : John Alsop, George Clinton, John Dickinson, Charles Humphreys, Robert R. Livingston, John Rogers, Thomas Willing, and Henry Wisner. Clinton, Livingston, and Wisner were attending to duties away from Congress when the signing took place. Willing and Humphreys voted against the resolution of independence and were replaced in the Pennsylvania delegation before the August 2 signing. Rogers had voted for the resolution of independence but was no longer a delegate on August 2. Alsop favored reconciliation with Great Britain and so resigned rather than add his name to the document. Dickinson refused to sign, believing the Declaration premature, but he remained in Congress. George Read had voted against the resolution of independence, and Robert Morris had abstained -- yet they both signed the Declaration. The most famous signature on the engrossed copy is that of John Hancock, who presumably signed first as President of Congress. Hancock 's large, flamboyant signature became iconic, and John Hancock emerged in the United States as an informal synonym for `` signature ''. Future presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge ( age 26 ) was the youngest signer and Benjamin Franklin ( age 70 ) the oldest. John Hancock 's now - iconic signature on the Declaration is nearly 5 inches ( 13 cm ) long. Some delegates were away on business when the Declaration was debated, including William Hooper and Samuel Chase, but they were back in Congress to sign on August 2. Other delegates were present when the Declaration was debated but added their names after August 2, including Lewis Morris, Oliver Wolcott, Thomas McKean, and possibly Elbridge Gerry. Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe were in Virginia during July and August, but returned to Congress and signed the Declaration probably in September and October, respectively. New delegates joining the Congress were also allowed to sign. Eight men signed the Declaration who did not take seats in Congress until after July 4 : Matthew Thornton, William Williams, Benjamin Rush, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, George Ross, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Matthew Thornton did not take a seat in Congress until November. By the time that he signed it, there was n't any space for his name next to the other New Hampshire delegates, so he placed his signature at the end of the document. The first published version of the Declaration was the Dunlap broadside. The only names on that version were Congress President John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson, and those names were printed rather than signatures. The public did not learn who had signed the engrossed copy until January 18, 1777, when the Congress ordered that an `` authenticated copy '' be sent to each of the 13 states, including the names of the signers. This copy is called the Goddard Broadside ; it was the first to list all the signers except for Thomas McKean, who may not have signed the Declaration until after the Goddard Broadside was published. Congress Secretary Charles Thomson did not sign the engrossed copy of the Declaration, and his name does n't appear on the Goddard Broadside, even though it does appear on the Dunlap broadside. Stories and legends Various legends emerged years later concerning the signing of the Declaration, when the document had become an important national symbol. In one famous story, John Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, must now `` all hang together '', and Benjamin Franklin replied : `` Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately. '' The quotation did not appear in print until more than 50 years after Franklin 's death. References Citations Jump up ^ Warren, `` Fourth of July Myths '', pp. 242 -- 43 Jump up ^ Warren, `` Fourth of July Myths '', p. 246 ; Burnett, Continental Congress, p. 192 Jump up ^ Hazelton, Declaration History, pp. 299 -- 302 ; Burnett, Continental Congress, p. 192 Jump up ^ Hazelton, Declaration History, p. 302 Jump up ^ Warren, `` Fourth of July Myths '', pp. 243 -- 45 Jump up ^ https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/blog/signing Jump up ^ U.S. Continental Congress, Secret Journals vol. 1, p. 46 Jump up ^ U.S. Continental Congress, Secret Journals vol. 1, p. 46 Jump up ^ Warren, `` Fourth of July Myths '', pp. 245 -- 46 Jump up ^ Hazelton, Declaration History, pp. 208 -- 19 ; Wills, Inventing America, p. 341 Jump up ^ Strauss, Valerie ( July 2, 2014 ). `` What you know about July 4th is wrong ''. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2017. Jump up ^ Ritz, `` Authentication '', p. 194 Jump up ^ Ritz, `` Authentication '', p. 182 Jump up ^ Ritz, `` Authentication '', pp. 198 -- 200 Jump up ^ Ritz, `` Authentication '', pp. 190 -- 200 Jump up ^ Friedenwald ( Interpretation and Analysis, p. 143 ) says that 45 delegates can be confirmed as present on July 4, and that another four might have been. Jump up ^ Friedenwald ( Interpretation, p. 149 ) gives the number of non-signers as seven, not counting Dickinson, who absented himself for the final votes. Jump up ^ Hazelton, Declaration History, pp. 525 -- 26 Jump up ^ Hazelton, Declaration History, p. 209 Jump up ^ Merriam - Webster online ; Dictionary.com. Jump up ^ Malone, Story of the Declaration, p. 90 Jump up ^ Fradin, The Signers, 112. Jump up ^ Friedenwald, Interpretation, p, 148 Jump up ^ Friedenwald ( Interpretation, p. 149 ) lists seven men ; he does not include Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who had been working as an emissary for Congress. He did not become an official member of the Maryland delegation until July 4, and did not take his seat as a delegate until July 18. ( Hazelton, Declaration History, pp. 529, 587 ) Jump up ^ The U.S. State Department ( 1911 ), The Declaration of Independence, 1776, pp. 10, 11. Jump up ^ Friedenwald, Interpretation, p. 150 Jump up ^ Warren, `` Fourth of July Myths '', p. 247 ; Hazelton, Declaration History, p. 284 ; Friedenwald, Interpretation, p. 137, where the date is misprinted as January 8, but correct on page 150. Jump up ^ Friedenwald, Interpretation, p. 137 Jump up ^ Malone, Story of the Declaration, p. 91 Sources Boyd, Julian P., ed. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1. Princeton University Press, 1950. Boyd, Julian P. `` The Declaration of Independence : The Mystery of the Lost Original ''. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 100, number 4 ( October 1976 ), 438 -- 67. Burnett, Edward Cody. The Continental Congress. New York : Norton, 1941. Friedenwald, Herbert. The Declaration of Independence : An Interpretation and an Analysis. New York : Macmillan, 1904. Accessed via the Internet Archive. Hazelton, John H. The Declaration of Independence : Its History. Originally published 1906. New York : Da Capo Press, 1970. ISBN 0 - 306 - 71987 - 8. 1906 printing available on Google Book Search Maier, Pauline. American Scripture : Making the Declaration of Independence. New York : Knopf, 1997. ISBN 0 - 679 - 45492 - 6. Malone, Dumas. The Story of the Declaration of Independence. New York : Oxford University Press, 1975. A picture book with text by a leading Jefferson scholar. Ritz, Wilfred J. `` The Authentication of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 ''. Law and History Review 4, no. 1 ( Spring 1986 ) : 179 -- 204. United States Continental Congress. Secret journals of the acts and proceedings of Congress, from the first meeting thereof to the dissolution of the Confederation, vol. 1, p. 46. Boston : Thomas B. Wait, 1820. Warren, Charles. `` Fourth of July Myths. '' The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, vol. 2, no. 3 ( July 1945 ) : 238 -- 72. Wills, Garry. Inventing America : Jefferson 's Declaration of Independence. Garden City, New York : Doubleday, 1978. ISBN 0 - 385 - 08976 - 7. 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Question: when did the continental congress sign the declaration of independence
Answer: August 2, 1776