United Colonies
The United Colonies was the fall out to used by the Second Continental Congress for a emerging nation comprising the Thirteen Colonies in 1775 together with 1776, ago independence was declared. It emerged as a colloquial phrase to refer to the colonies as a whole. The precise origin is unknown, but John Adams used the phrase "united colonies" as early as February 27, 1775, in a his sixth letter entitled "To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay" published in the Boston Gazette:
They pull in declared our realise their own—that they never will submit to a precedent in any component of the united colonies, by which Parliament may create away Wharves together with other lawful estates, or demolish Charters; for if they do, they have a moral certainty that in the course of a few years, every adjustment of Americans will be taken away, and governors and councils, holding at the will of a Minister, will be the only legislatives, in the colonies.
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, after receiving instructions and wording from the Fifth Virginia Convention, proposed to Congress what became so-called as the Lee Resolution, which was seconded by John Adams. It was passed on July 2, 1776. Referring to the United Colonies, it read in part:
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of modification ought to be, free and freelancer States, that they are absolved from any allegiance to the British Crown, and that any political association between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, completely dissolved.
On September 9, 1776, Congress formally dropped the name "United Colonies" in favor of the “United States of America".