But such action would require the decision of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.  Yet none of the delegates had come to Philadelphia with this idea in mind or with any specific instructions on this matter from the colonial assemblies they were representing.  They would have to return to their colonies and secure authorization.  Of course this would be hotly contested by many who, though highly irritated at the high-handedness of the authorities in London, were yet quite unwilling to break the link with the Mother country.

The debate in America in the spring of 1776 was intense, although clearly there was a growing momentum in the colonies in support of independence.  Starting with North Carolina, one by one some of the colonial assemblies passed resolutions authorizing their delegates to vote for formal independence from England.  But action stalled in the middle colonies.  When in mid-May Congress took up a Declaration of Independence written by John Adams, four of the middle colonies voted against it.  The Maryland delegation even walked out.

But the independence momentum was gathering strength. On the same day that Congress passed the less than unanimous Adams declaration, the Virginia Assembly voted strongly for independence.  Thus politically armed, the Virginia delegation arrived in Philadelphia in early June and submitted its own independence resolution for a vote:

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.

The debate that followed was intense.  But one by one – with the exception of New York, whose colonial assembly was sent scattering by the British occupation before the Assembly had a chance to vote – the colonial assemblies were instructed to vote for independence.

Thus a committee of five was appointed to draft an explanation justifying the move to independence, to be submitted to the Continental Congress along with the resolution.  Ultimately the task of drafting such a statement was given to the young, scholarly Virginia aristocrat, Thomas Jefferson.  He put together a draft resolution (the language possibly borrowed heavily from Locke's Two Treatises on Government) and submitted it to the committee where it underwent changes,¹ and then it was presented to the full Congress at the end of June.  The famous Preamble states the case clearly:

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.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Now the colonies were no longer just that.   As they saw things, they were now thirteen free and independent states.

¹Words and sentences were revised, and about 1/4th of Jefferson's text was cut out – including an assertion by Jefferson that slavery had been forced on the colonies by Britain – causing Jefferson to be deeply irritated by this editorial slighting of his personal creativity! Also the irony in Jefferson's statement that all men are created equal was the fact that he himself owned a number of slaves, who, though men, were certainly not created equal or endowed with certain unalienable Rights.