The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America is a document drafted by the Second Continental Congress - in the Pennsylvania State House (now Hall of Independence) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 - which proclaimed that the Thirteen American Colonies - then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain-they had defined themselves as thirteen new sovereign and independent States and no longer recognized British rule; instead, they formed a new nation: the United States. John Adams was one of the politicians who undertook the independence process, approved on July 2 by the full Congress without opposition. A committee was responsible for drafting the formal statement, which was presented when Congress voted on it two days later.
