Congress appointed the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence commemorated by America250.
The committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Congress selected the group on June 11, 1776, after the question of independence had become central to the Continental Congress.
Jefferson wrote the main draft, while the other committee members reviewed and revised it before presenting it to Congress. Congress then debated and edited the text before adopting the Declaration on July 4, 1776.
The Committee of Five is sometimes confused with the broader Second Continental Congress, which adopted the document, or with the Committee of Correspondence network that helped exchange political information before the Revolution.