Thomas Jefferson wrote the main draft of the Declaration of Independence, whose 1776 adoption is commemorated by America’s 250th anniversary.
Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee consisting of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. The committee selected Jefferson to prepare the text, and Congress then revised his draft before adopting it.
Jefferson was 33 years old in 1776 and represented Virginia in the Continental Congress. His draft drew on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights, government by consent, and the right of people to change a government that violates those principles.
Jefferson was the principal drafter, but the Declaration was a collective political document. Congress made numerous edits, and the final text reflected debate among colonial delegates. The 2026 anniversary therefore commemorates both Jefferson’s authorship and Congress’s adoption of the finished declaration.