The Declaration of Independence’s five-member drafting body was called the Committee of Five, a group central to the history commemorated by America250.
Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson prepared the main draft for the group.
The Committee of Five presented the draft to Congress on June 28. Congress then debated, edited, and approved the document. It was not the same body as the later Committee of Detail, which helped draft the United States Constitution in 1787.