The Committee of Five drafted the United States Declaration of Independence for the Second Continental Congress.
Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776, as debate over independence intensified. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The group was responsible for preparing a document that explained the colonies’ decision to separate from Great Britain.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft, while the committee and Congress reviewed and revised it. Congress edited the text during late June and early July before adopting the Declaration on July 4. The committee therefore shaped the document, but the final wording was a product of congressional debate.
The Committee of Five is sometimes confused with the Second Continental Congress itself or with the later group that prepared the Articles of Confederation. Its specific role was drafting and presenting the Declaration, a central document in the America250 commemoration.