The Committee of Five drafted and presented the document that became the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Second Continental Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut.
The committee decided that Jefferson would prepare the first draft. It presented that draft to Congress on June 28, after which delegates debated and revised the text. Congress adopted the final Declaration on July 4.
The committee did not act as five equal co-authors in the modern sense. Jefferson wrote most of the draft, while Adams and Franklin reviewed it and Congress made substantial changes. The group’s name is sometimes confused with the broader Second Continental Congress, which debated and approved the final document.