For hundreds of years the American colonies were under the rule of the British parliament, thousands of miles apart from each other. With increasing corruption on the part of the British crown and the building of a separate American identity the colonists made the decision to break away from Britian and form a new nation. The 13 colonies already had political leaders and in 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a bill, called the Lee Resolution, to declare independence. Five delegates to the Second Continental Congress were selected to draft a declaration to announce that purpose. This group was called the Committee of Five: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman from Conecticutt, Benjamin Franklin from Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston from New York and Thomas Jefferson from Virginia. Jefferson was deemed to be the best writer and was given the job of drafting the Declaration. The other four edited it. And the rest of the congress debated it. The result was the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.