Who drafted the principal text of the Declaration of Independence celebrated by America250?

Thomas Jefferson drafted the principal text of the Declaration of Independence celebrated by America250. In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed Jefferson to a five-member committee to prepare a declaration explaining the colonies’ case for independence.

Jefferson wrote the draft largely at his rented rooms in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams reviewed it, and the full Congress debated, edited, and shortened the text before adopting it. Jefferson therefore served as the principal author, but the final document was the product of congressional revision rather than an unchanged personal manuscript.

Jefferson later became the third president of the United States. His role in the Declaration is distinct from his later presidency and from his work on other founding-era documents, including the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and the Kentucky Resolutions.