The Declaration of Independence was commissioned and assigned to Jefferson after this resolution, introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, was brought before the Second Continental Congress. The Lee Resolution is the first officially approved statement saying that the colonies should be independent, which paved the way for the Declaration to say that the colonies were independent.

(Basically: time to pop the champagne.)

Although the Declaration was commissioned only a few days after the Lee Resolution was introduced, the resolution itself wasn't officially approved until July 2nd. In fact, the first vote on July 1st had only gotten approval from nine out of twelve voting delegates. Some delegates, who thought an independence vote was too drastic a move, saw that they had lost and removed themselves from the voting, which led to the unanimous vote on July 2.

The Lee Resolution itself is very, very short, unlike so many other historical documents, where it might feel like the author had a minimum word count (we're looking at you, Mr. Locke).

The Lee Resolution has only three sentences, each of which state a different goal: (1) the colonies should be independent of Britain, (2) the independent country should start making its own alliances with other countries, and (3) it's time to come up with a plan for "confederation," or a government for the united colonies.

You can thank Mr. Lee and John Adams for the brevity of the document, which often gets passed over in favor of its more elegant offspring, the Declaration of Independence. However, the Lee Resolution opened the door allowing the Declaration to be embraced by the Second Continental Congress. And if you're going to open a door, that's a pretty important one.