<P> On July 2, South Carolina reversed its position and voted for independence . In the Pennsylvania delegation, Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained, allowing the delegation to vote three - to - two in favor of independence . The tie in the Delaware delegation was broken by the timely arrival of Caesar Rodney, who voted for independence . The New York delegation abstained once again since they were still not authorized to vote for independence, although they were allowed to do so a week later by the New York Provincial Congress . The resolution of independence had been adopted with twelve affirmative votes and one abstention . With this, the colonies had officially severed political ties with Great Britain . John Adams predicted in a famous letter, written to his wife on the following day, that July 2 would become a great American holiday . He thought that the vote for independence would be commemorated; he did not foresee that Americans--including himself--would instead celebrate Independence Day on the date when the announcement of that act was finalized . </P> <P> After voting in favor of the resolution of independence, Congress turned its attention to the committee's draft of the declaration . Over several days of debate, they made a few changes in wording and deleted nearly a fourth of the text and, on July 4, 1776, the wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved and sent to the printer for publication . </P> <P> There is a distinct change in wording from this original broadside printing of the Declaration and the final official engrossed copy . The word "unanimous" was inserted as a result of a Congressional resolution passed on July 19, 1776: </P> <P> Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile of "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America," and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress . </P>

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