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

Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the Declaration of Independence.

In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member Committee of Five to prepare a declaration. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, but Jefferson produced the original draft.

Congress then debated, edited, and adopted the text on July 4, 1776. Jefferson’s draft drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and government, while the final document also listed specific grievances against King George III.

Jefferson was not yet president when he wrote the Declaration. He later became the third president of the United States, serving from 1801 to 1809. John Adams and George Washington also became presidents, but neither wrote most of the document.