Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, whose 250th anniversary America250 commemorates.
Jefferson drafted the document in June 1776 after the Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member Committee of Five to prepare a declaration. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.
Although Jefferson wrote the main draft, the final text was a collaborative product. Adams and Franklin reviewed it, and Congress made additional changes during debate. Jefferson's draft drew on ideas about natural rights, government, and the right of revolution that were influential in eighteenth-century political thought.
Jefferson later became the third president of the United States. His authorship is sometimes overstated as if he alone approved every word, but Congress—not Jefferson individually—adopted the final Declaration on July 4, 1776. America250's 2026 commemoration marks that broader congressional act.