After the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, a specially prepared manuscript copy was signed by fifty-six delegates to Congress beginning on August 2. The first official facsimile copy of the Declaration of Independence was carried out in 1823 by William J. Stone under the authority of John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. This is one of the fewer than 3 dozen of the 201 vellum copies of the copper plate engraving that have survived.