The Committee of Five drafted the United States Declaration of Independence for the Second Continental Congress.
Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776, after the Lee Resolution called for independence. Its members were Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York. Jefferson produced the main draft, drawing on political ideas about natural rights and legitimate government.
The committee presented the draft to Congress on June 28. Congress then debated, edited, and approved the text during the following days. Jefferson's draft was changed substantially, including the removal of a passage criticizing the transatlantic slave trade and other revisions to the language and structure.
The Committee of Five did not itself adopt the Declaration. That responsibility belonged to the Second Continental Congress, which approved the document on July 4, 1776. The committee therefore represents the drafting stage, while Congress represents the formal legislative adoption stage.
This distinction helps explain why Thomas Jefferson is called the principal author, even though the Declaration was a collective congressional document shaped by several delegates.