Which future US president was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence who later became a U.S. president.

Jefferson was 33 in 1776, when he represented Virginia in the Second Continental Congress. Congress selected him for the five-member drafting committee, and he wrote the document’s original draft, which the committee and Congress revised before adoption.

The wording can cause a common mix-up: Jefferson was not the youngest signer overall. South Carolina delegate Edward Rutledge was 26, making him the youngest person to sign. Jefferson was the youngest among the signers who later served as president; John Adams, the other future president who signed, was 40.

Jefferson became the third president in 1801, after serving as vice president and secretary of state. He later described the Declaration’s principles as central to the American founding, although the document’s promise of equality coexisted with slavery, a contradiction that remains central to its historical interpretation.