Drafting and adoption of the Declaration of Independence

AI reconstruction based on John Trumbull's 'Declaration of Independence' (1818), from the perspective of Congress secretary Charles Thomson's desk, looking directly at the Committee of Five as they present the draft � left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin

Drafting and adoption of the Declaration of Independence

A committee of five picked one man to find the words for a revolution: Thomas Jefferson, its youngest member, was given the actual writing.^{[1, p. 10]}

What Happened

The story

After Congress voted for independence on 2 July 1776, it turned to the Committee of Five's task of explaining that decision to the world. The committee, which included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, had already left the actual writing to its youngest member, Thomas Jefferson^{[1, p. 10]}.

Jefferson produced what he later called his “Rough Draft”^[2], then submitted it to Franklin and Adams, who made their own amendments before it went back to the full committee^[2].

AI reconstruction based on Barry Faulkner's mural "Declaration of Independence" (1936, National Archives Rotunda), depicting the Committee of Five in debate as they carry the draft outdoors — including the mural's well-known detail of Abraham Lincoln's profile hidden in the clouds.

Congress spent two days debating and trimming the committee's draft before formally adopting the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776^[3].

The adopted Declaration was quickly printed and circulated to the states and the army, publicly announcing the reasons for the colonies' new claim to independent nationhood^[3].

Quick Facts

The essentials

Quick Facts

Location: Part of Thirteen Colonies (British America) — today, United States Date: June – 4 July 1776 Period: Early Modern World Classification: Founding / Establishment Also known as: The Committee of Five; Jefferson's draft; the original Rough draught

The Bigger Picture

Drafted in the same Congress session that had just voted for independence on 2 July 1776, amid the ongoing Revolutionary War against Britain.^{[4, p. 2]}

How It Came To This

Congress's vote for independence on 2 July 1776 created an immediate need for a public document explaining and justifying that decision to the world.^{[4, p. 2]}

What Actually Happened

The Committee of Five assigned the actual writing to its youngest member, Thomas Jefferson^{[1, p. 10]}. Jefferson produced what he called his Rough Draft^[2] before submitting it to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who made their own amendments^[2]. Congress then reviewed and trimmed the committee's text over two days before formally adopting the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776^[3].

Why It Still Matters

The adopted text became the founding statement of the United States, announcing the colonies' claim to a “separate and equal station” among nations^[3].

AI reconstruction based on J.L.G. Ferris's "Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776" (exact date not confirmed), staying close to the original composition and viewpoint, with Franklin seated at left, Adams seated at centre, and Jefferson standing at right.

Quick Facts

Keith has spotted the quotation problem…

In Jefferson's rough draft, the Declaration's most famous line originally read differently. Where the final text calls these truths “self-evident”, Jefferson had first written “sacred and undeniable” before the phrase was crossed out and rewritten^{[2, p. 170]}.

Keith checked the sources…

Jefferson's rough draft included a long passage blaming the British king for the Atlantic slave trade, condemning it as “cruel war against human nature itself”^{[2, p. 170]}. Congress cut the entire passage before the Declaration's final adoption.

History gets strange here…

Jefferson himself later summed up what he'd been trying to do. Looking back on the Declaration, he described it simply as “an expression of the American mind”^{[5, p. 375]}, rather than a work of original philosophy.

This sounds invented, but…

The elegant handwriting on the Declaration's famous parchment copy isn't Jefferson's at all. It belongs to Timothy Matlack, the Congressional clerk given the job of engrossing the approved text^[6].

Roger has entered the historical rabbit hole…

Jefferson's own manuscript still carries the fingerprints of his editors. Notes in the margins of his rough draft mark specific passages where Benjamin Franklin made changes^{[2, p. 170]} as he and John Adams reviewed the text line by line.

Roger would like you to know…

The document wasn't actually titled “The Declaration of Independence” when Jefferson wrote it. His rough draft opens simply: “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled”^{[2, p. 170]}.

Keith would like to clarify…

Even a single word could get the committee treatment. A note beside one correction on Jefferson's draft records that the fix from “neglected utterly” to “utterly neglected” is in John Adams's own handwriting^{[2, p. 170]}.

One for the Ageonauts…

Jefferson wasn't writing on a blank page. Many of his phrases echo George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, drafted only weeks earlier and already circulating among the delegates^{[7, p. 1]}.

Roger says, “Hear me out…”

John Adams later explained, with characteristic bluntness, why he'd pushed the writing job onto Jefferson: “I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise,” he reportedly told him^{[8, p. 99]}.

Down the rabbit hole we go…

The Declaration's actual legal effect had already happened two days earlier. Congress voted for independence on 2 July 1776; adopting the Declaration on 4 July only supplied the public explanation^{[7, p. 1]}.

AI reconstruction based on the engraving "Drafting the Declaration of Independence - The Committee: Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Livingston and Sherman" (artist and date not confirmed), from the perspective of a colleague standing at the table as one committee member holds the draft up to read, with Franklin standing by the fireplace and Jefferson looking on from the left.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights^{[9, p. 242]}

Second Continental Congress (draft principally by Thomas Jefferson)

The opening of the Declaration's second paragraph, the philosophical core of the document Jefferson drafted for the Committee of Five and Congress adopted, with amendments, on 4 July 1776.^[3]

Timeline

How it unfolded

June 1776

Jefferson Writes the Draft

Jefferson drew up the draft himself, and by his own 1823 account to Madison he showed it separately to Franklin and Adams for corrections, which were two or three only and merely verbal, before reporting it to the committee.^[2] Donaldson places his lodgings, where Jefferson said he lived while writing it, at the Graff House at Seventh and Market streets.^{[10, p. 53]}

11 June 1776

Committee of Five Appointed

Congress named Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston to prepare a declaration, and, according to the later account in Rayner's life of Jefferson, the committee unanimously asked Jefferson to write the draught alone.^{[1, p. 10]}^[11]^[12]

28 June 1776

Draft Laid Before Congress

The committee brought in its draft, which was read and ordered to lie on the table.^{[5, p. 375]}^[13]

2 July 1776

Congress Edits the Draft

By Jefferson's account the debates on the draft took up the greater parts of 2, 3 and 4 July, and Congress struck out the passages censuring the people of England and the clause condemning the slave trade, the latter out of regard for South Carolina and Georgia.^{[14, p. 87]}

4 July 1776

Declaration Adopted and Ordered Printed

Benjamin Harrison reported that the committee of the whole had agreed to a Declaration, which Congress then agreed to and ordered authenticated and printed, with the drafting committee to superintend the press.^{[5, p. 375]} Copies were sent out signed only by John Hancock as president and Charles Thomson as secretary.^[13]

8 July 1776

First Public Reading in Philadelphia

The Declaration was read to the public for the first time in Independence Square outside the Pennsylvania State House, followed by celebrations.^{[15, p. 2]}^[13]

19 July 1776

Engrossing Ordered

Congress voted that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment under the title 'The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America' and signed by every member, and the clerk Timothy Matlack produced the parchment copy.^[16]^[13]

2 August 1776

Members Sign the Engrossed Declaration

The engrossed parchment copy was signed at the table by the members present, and absent members signed later; Congress withheld the names of the signers for more than six months.^{[16, p. 170]}^[17]

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