Who was the principal drafter of the Declaration of Independence remembered by America250?

Thomas Jefferson was the principal drafter of the Declaration of Independence remembered by America250.

The Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee consisting of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. The committee asked Jefferson to prepare the main draft, which he wrote in June 1776.

Congress then debated, edited, and approved the document. Jefferson was its principal author, but the final text was a collective political act rather than a document adopted exactly as he first wrote it. Congress removed and changed some passages before approval.

Jefferson was a Virginia delegate and later became the third president of the United States. His authorship is sometimes confused with the role of John Adams or Benjamin Franklin, who helped shape the committee’s work and supported independence. The famous painting of the committee presenting the draft is also not a literal scene of the signing.