Editing Declaration of Independence (section)

== Adoption and Proclamation ==

Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, a date that would become the most celebrated in American history. The document was signed initially only by John Hancock, president of Congress, and Charles Thomson, its secretary; the famous parchment copy with its fifty-six signatures was engrossed later and signed primarily on August 2, with some delegates signing even later. The date July 4 commemorates the adoption of the text rather than any particular signing. John Adams, who had expected July 2 (the date of the independence vote) to be celebrated, wrote to his wife Abigail that the occasion "ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty."<ref name="mccullough">{{cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |title=John Adams |year=2001 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York}}</ref>

The Declaration was first read publicly in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, in the State House yard to a crowd that had gathered after hearing bells summoning them to the event. The reading was followed by celebrations including bonfires, the removal of royal symbols, and the pulling down of a statue of King George III in New York. Copies of the Declaration were dispatched throughout the colonies, where it was read aloud to crowds and reprinted in newspapers. The [[Liberty Bell]], which had summoned citizens to the State House yard, became associated with the Declaration and eventually with the broader cause of American freedom. The public proclamation transformed the Declaration from a congressional resolution into a founding document of the American nation.<ref name="nps">{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/stories-declaration.htm |title=Declaration of Independence |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=December 29, 2025}}</ref>