Who drafted the main text of the Declaration of Independence, central to America250?

Thomas Jefferson drafted the main text of the Declaration of Independence, the document central to America250.

Congress appointed a five-member drafting group known as the Committee of Five on June 11, 1776. Its members were Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson wrote the initial draft, while the committee reviewed it before presenting it to Congress.

Congress then debated and edited the wording. The final document was not simply Jefferson’s untouched manuscript: delegates removed passages, changed language, and approved the finished text on July 4, 1776. Jefferson’s contribution was nevertheless the principal authorship of the draft.

Jefferson later became the third president of the United States. Adams and Franklin, two other Committee of Five members, also became presidents or major national leaders. George Washington was not a member of that drafting committee, although he commanded the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.