Known sourcecanonical
"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."
John Adams / Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776.
Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain