The Committee of Five drafted and presented the United States Declaration of Independence to Congress.
The Second Continental Congress appointed the group on June 11, 1776. Its members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson wrote the first draft, while the other members reviewed it before presentation.
The committee operated during the decisive weeks before independence was formally declared. It presented its draft on June 28, and Congress debated and edited the text before adopting it on July 4.
The Committee of Five is sometimes confused with the Committee of Thirteen, which was appointed separately to draft a framework for a union. It is also distinct from the later Committee of Detail, which helped organize the United States Constitution in 1787.