Signing of the United States Declaration of IndependenceFifty-six delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia sighned the United State Declaration of independance a statement announcing that the 13 american colonies then at war with Great Britian were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Although the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress on July 4, the date of its signing has been disputed. Most historians have concluded that it was signed nearly a month after its adoption, on August 2, 1776, and not on July 4 as is commonly believed.