Which group prepared the draft of the Declaration of Independence commemorated by America250?

The Committee of Five prepared the draft of the Declaration of Independence commemorated by America250.

The Second Continental Congress appointed the committee on June 11, 1776. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the initial draft, while the other members reviewed and revised it before Congress debated the text.

Congress began considering the draft on June 28 and adopted the Declaration on July 4 after making numerous changes. The committee therefore prepared the document, but it did not independently approve the final wording. That authority belonged to the Continental Congress.

The Committee of Five is easy to confuse with the Declaration’s signers. The committee members were among the document’s contributors, but the final engrossed document was signed later by congressional delegates, chiefly on August 2, 1776.