Claim: John Adams advocated for the Declaration of Independence in Congress.

The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House -LRB- Independence Hall -RRB- in Philadelphia on July 4 , 1776 , which announced that the thirteen American colonies , then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain , regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states , and no longer under British rule . Instead they formed a new nation -- the United States of America . John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence , which was passed on July 2 with no opposing vote cast . A committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration , to be ready when Congress voted on independence . The term `` Declaration of Independence '' is not used in the document itself .   John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document , which Congress would edit to produce the final version . The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain , more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War . The next day , John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail : `` The Second Day of July 1776 , will be the most memorable Epocha , in the History of America . '' But Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4 , the date that the Declaration of Independence was approved .   After ratifying the text on July 4 , Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms . It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public . The source copy used for this printing has been lost , and may have been a copy in Thomas Jefferson 's hand . Jefferson 's original draft , complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin , and Jefferson 's notes of changes made by Congress , are preserved at the Library of Congress . The best known version of the Declaration , a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the official document , is displayed at the National Archives in Washington , D.C. . This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19 , and signed primarily on August 2 .   The sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry . The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III , and by asserting certain natural and legal rights , including a right of revolution . Having served its original purpose in announcing independence , references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years . Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric -LRB- as in the Gettysburg Address of 1863 -RRB- , and his policies . Since then , it has become a well-known statement on human rights , particularly its second sentence :   We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights , that among these are Life , Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness .   This has been called `` one of the best-known sentences in the English language '' , containing `` the most potent and consequential words in American history '' . The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive . This view was notably promoted by Abraham Lincoln , who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy , and argued that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the United States Constitution should be interpreted .   The United States Declaration of Independence inspired many other similar documents in other countries , with its ideas gaining adherence in the Low Countries , as well as in the Caribbean , Spanish America , the Balkans , West Africa , and Central Europe in the decades up to 1848 . </blockquote>