Architecture of the United States entrance topped by a pediment supported by Doric columns. The roof has a balustrade and a symmetrical arrangement, characteristic of the neoclassic style popular in Europe then. In 1776 the members of the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies. After the long and distressing American Revolutionary War, the 1783 Treaty of Paris recognized the existence of the new republic, the United States of America. Even though it was a firm break with the English politically, the Georgian influences continued to mark the buildings constructed. Public and commercial needs grew in parallel with the territorial extension.
United States Declaration of Independence independence until after Congress had made its decision. Political maneuvering was setting the stage for an official declaration of independence even while a document was being written to explain the decision. On June 11, 1776, Congress appointed a "Committee of Five" to draft a declaration, consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut. The committee took no minutes, so there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded; contradictory accounts were written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, too many years