Author, Author!
Many words describe Thomas Jefferson. He is best remembered as the person who wrote the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, but he did not work alone.
On June 7, 1776, Virginia Delegate Richard Henry Lee put forward a resolution that "all political connection between them [the Colonies] and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." On June 11th, the Continental Congress nominated a drafting committee of five men to compose a declaration of independence.
Committee Members
An Editor, Not an Author
Jefferson’s friend and mentor Benjamin Franklin revised and edited Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence.
The Tongue of Independence
John Adams told Jefferson “You can write ten times better than I can” and joined Franklin in editing the Declaration of Independence.
The Chancellor
Recalled to help convince his home colony of New York to vote for Independence, Robert R. Livingston later negotiated the Louisiana Purchase.
Super Signer
Roger Sherman of Connecticut is the only founder to sign all four of America’s original great state papers.
Podcast: The Declaration and the Committee of Five
Listen as we take a look at the the group of the five delegates from five Colonies selected to write and edit this important document.
Jefferson Remembers the Committee of Five
In an 1823 letter to James Madison, Jefferson contradicts both John Adams’s and Timothy Pickering’s versions of how the Declaration of Independence came to be.