Who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence honored by America250?

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence honored by America250. Congress appointed him to the Committee of Five that prepared the document in June 1776.

Jefferson drafted the text at a rented house in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams reviewed the draft, while Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston also served on the committee. Congress then edited the document before adopting it on July 4.

Jefferson’s wording drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and government based on consent. The Declaration’s opening political argument says that governments exist to secure rights and that a people may change or abolish a government that violates those purposes.

Jefferson later became the third president of the United States, serving from 1801 to 1809. He was not the sole author of every final sentence: the Continental Congress removed and altered portions of his draft, including a lengthy passage criticizing the slave trade.