Thomas Jefferson drafted most of the Declaration of Independence, the document honored by America250.
On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The committee selected Jefferson to prepare the main draft, which he wrote in June 1776.
Congress then debated and revised the text. The final document was therefore a congressional product, not an untouched work by Jefferson alone. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams helped shape the draft, while delegates made substantial changes before adoption on July 4.
Jefferson later became the third president of the United States, but he was not president in 1776. George Washington commanded the Continental Army and did not draft the declaration. A common mix-up is confusing the declaration's principal drafter with its most prominent military leader.