Thomas Jefferson chaired the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence commemorated by America250.
Congress appointed the committee in June 1776 to prepare a public explanation of the colonies’ decision to separate from Great Britain. Its members were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. Jefferson wrote the initial draft, which the committee reviewed before presenting it to Congress.
Jefferson was chosen as the principal drafter partly because of his reputation as a strong writer and his Virginia connections. He was relatively young compared with Adams and Franklin, but his draft supplied much of the document’s celebrated language about equality and natural rights.
Congress then revised the draft during debate. The final Declaration is therefore not solely Jefferson’s text: it is a congressional document shaped by the committee and by the delegates’ amendments. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were committee members, but neither chaired it.