Thomas Jefferson is widely identified as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence commemorated by America’s 250th anniversary.
The Continental Congress appointed Jefferson to the five-member committee chosen to draft the document. The committee also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.
Jefferson wrote the initial draft, which Congress then debated and edited. The final document therefore reflects congressional revision rather than Jefferson’s untouched wording. His draft drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and the legitimacy of government.
Jefferson later became the third president of the United States. He was not the commander of the Continental Army; that role belonged to George Washington, who signed neither the Declaration nor the Constitution’s final document as president.