Which member of the Philadelphia Congress declared that the colonies should be free and independent states on June 7, 1776, guiding the push toward independence?

• A. Marquis de Lafayette
• B. Richard Henry Lee
• C. Thomas Paine
• D. Mercy Otis Warren

Answer: (B)

The key idea here is the formal push for independence within the Continental Congress. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, a Virginian delegate, introduced a resolution declaring that the colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states,” effectively proposing independence from Britain. This Lee Resolution created the legal and political foundation for drafting the Declaration of Independence, which Congress would adopt a little later that summer.

Marquis de Lafayette is known as a French ally who supported the American cause, but he was not the delegate who introduced independence in June 1776. Thomas Paine wrote influential pamphlets like Common Sense promoting independence, but he was not the one presenting a formal resolution in Congress. Mercy Otis Warren was a Massachusetts writer and advocate for independence, not the author of the June 7 resolution.