Thomas Jefferson was the principal writer of the United States Declaration of Independence, commemorated during America250.
The Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee in June 1776. The committee selected Jefferson to prepare the initial draft, which he wrote in Philadelphia. Congress then revised the text during debate before adopting it on July 4.
Jefferson was a Virginia delegate in his early thirties when he drafted the document. His prose presented the colonies’ case for separation and included the well-known principle that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed.
Jefferson was not the only person involved in creating the final Declaration. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston served with him on the drafting committee. Congress made changes to Jefferson’s draft, so the adopted document was a product of committee work and congressional revision.