Which committee drafted the Declaration of Independence later commemorated by America250?

The Committee of Five drafted the Declaration of Independence later commemorated by America250.

The Second Continental Congress appointed the committee in June 1776 to prepare a document explaining the colonies’ decision to seek independence. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.

Jefferson wrote the initial draft, while the committee considered and presented it to Congress. Congress then debated and edited the text before adopting the final Declaration on July 4, 1776.

The group is called the Committee of Five because it had five members. It should not be confused with the Committee of Thirteen, which Congress appointed around the same period to consider a proposed union, or with local revolutionary committees that managed colonial resistance.