Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, the founding document at the heart of America250.
On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five to prepare a declaration. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Jefferson was selected to write the initial draft, which he largely completed between June 11 and June 28.
The committee reviewed Jefferson's work before presenting it to Congress. Delegates then debated, edited, and shortened the text. The final version was approved on July 4, 1776, so the document was a collaborative congressional product even though Jefferson was its principal initial writer.
Jefferson was 33 years old when he drafted the Declaration. His text drew on ideas about natural rights and government, including intellectual influences associated with John Locke and other eighteenth-century writers.