The Declaration of Independence was reported by the special committee on the 28th of June, 1776, and on the 4th of July came before Congress, for final decision, and received the vote of every colony. The committee appointed to prepare a declaration of independence selected John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as a sub-committee, with the original draft being made by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence was signed on August 2, 1776, by all members then present at the assembled General Congress. The following individuals are the original signers of the United States of America's Declaration of Independence:
John Hancock
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Mathew Thornton
Massachusetts Bay
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Delaware
Caesar Rodney
Thomas McKean
George Read
Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll, of Carrolton
New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxcton
New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
