Page "United States Declaration of Independence" Paragraph 20

Support for a Congressional declaration of independence was consolidated in the final weeks of June 1776.

On June 14, the Connecticut Assembly instructed its delegates to propose independence, and the following day the legislatures of New Hampshire and Delaware authorized their delegates to declare independence.

In Pennsylvania, political struggles ended with the dissolution of the colonial assembly, and on June 18 a new Conference of Committees under Thomas McKean authorized Pennsylvania's delegates to declare independence.

On June 15, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which had been governing the province since January 1776, resolved that Royal Governor William Franklin was " an enemy to the liberties of this country " and had him arrested.

On June 21, they chose new delegates to Congress and empowered them to join in a declaration of independence.