Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence for the Second Continental Congress.
Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee consisting of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The committee selected Jefferson to produce the initial draft, partly because of his reputation as a strong writer and because Virginia held an influential position in Congress.
Jefferson’s draft drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and government by consent. The committee and Congress revised the text, removing or changing several passages before adopting the final version on July 4, 1776.
Jefferson’s authorship does not mean he wrote the document entirely without review. Adams and Franklin offered suggestions, and the full Congress debated and edited the language. The Declaration also reflected political arguments circulating among colonial legislators and pamphleteers rather than being created in isolation.