Lee Resolution

• The Lee Resolution was submitted by Richard Henry Lee in 1776 to the nascent Congress. The document declared the independence of America's colonies, urged the establishment of ties with foreign powers, and even called for a legal confederation uniting the colonies. Congress eventually approved all three items. The first, which declared America's independence, gave rise to the Declaration of Independence.
  
  

Virginia Declaration of Rights

• George Mason and Thomas Ludwell Lee drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which argued Viriginians had a right to rebel against Britain. Not a single member of the Virginia Legislature voted against its adoption in June 1776. Jefferson drew heavily upon its language in drafting the Declaration of Independence, and the two documents are similar in style and in their willingness to assert the colonists have a moral right to independence.
  
  

The Declaration of Rights

• Following the passage of the Stamp Act, representatives from nine American colonies met in 1765 to protest its enactment by Britain's Parliament. The colonists did not assert their independence in the document, but protested that "no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent." The document played a role in the Stamp Act's repeal in 1766, and it took the colonies a step further from British control.
  
  

Fairfax County Resolves

• George Mason and George Washington wrote the Fairfax County Resolves in 1774 to protest the British treatment of Boston in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. It argued for the colonies to cease trade with the United Kingdom and even called for a ban on the slave trade. The Fairfax County Resolves do not call for the independence of the colonies, but do assert the colonies possessed certain fundamental constitutional rights, an important step that culminated in the Declaration of Independence.