Thomas Jefferson wrote the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, whose adoption America250 commemorates.
Congress appointed the five-member Committee of Five on June 11, 1776, to prepare a declaration. The committee included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, but Jefferson produced the principal draft.
Jefferson wrote most of the draft between June 11 and June 28, 1776. The committee reviewed it before presenting it to the Continental Congress, which then made substantial edits during debate.
Jefferson’s draft was not the final document exactly as published. Congress removed passages, changed wording, and shortened the text. The finished Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776. Its best-known arguments include claims about natural rights, equality, and the right of a people to alter or abolish destructive government.