Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the founding document highlighted by America250.
Jefferson prepared the draft in June 1776 after the Second Continental Congress appointed a five-member drafting committee. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston, but Jefferson became the principal writer.
Congress then revised the document during debate. The final text was not simply Jefferson’s untouched manuscript: delegates removed and changed passages, including language criticizing the slave trade. The committee presented the revised Declaration to Congress, which adopted it on July 4, 1776.
Jefferson later became the third president of the United States. His role as principal drafter is different from being the sole author or the person who formally approved the document. Congress adopted the Declaration collectively, and 56 delegates eventually signed the engrossed copy.