Which future U.S. president drafted most of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson drafted most of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson was appointed to the five-member committee chosen by the Second Continental Congress to prepare a declaration. The other members were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. The committee asked Jefferson to write the first draft, which he produced in June 1776.

The committee and Congress revised the text before adoption. Congress removed and changed portions of Jefferson’s draft, including a passage criticizing the transatlantic slave trade. The final document expressed the colonies’ reasons for separating from Great Britain and presented arguments about natural rights and government.

Jefferson later became the third president of the United States, serving from 1801 to 1809. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams helped edit the draft, but neither was its principal author. George Washington signed the Declaration? He did not: Washington was serving with the Continental Army and was not a delegate to Congress.