On June 11, 1776, the Second Continental Congress entrusted a committee of five delegates (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman) with composing the Declaration of Independence. The first two pages were reproduced in facsimile in Boyd, Declaration of Independence, 1945, pl. II, and its relation to the Declaration of Independence is discussed at p. 12–15. The document has the following endorsement by TJ in the margin of the first page: “Constitution of Virginia first ideas of Th: J. communicated to a member of the (This is Professor Julian Boyd's reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence before it was revised by the other members of the Committee of Five and by Congress. From: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Vol. 1, 1760-1776. Ed. On June 11, 1776, in anticipation of the impending vote for independence from Great Britain, the Continental Congress appointed five men — Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston — to write a declaration that would make clear to people everywhere why this break from Great Britain was both The committee appointed June 11, 1776, to prepare a declaration of independence consisted of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Thomas Jefferson is considered the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, although Jefferson's draft went through a process of revision by his fellow committee members and the Second Continental Congress. How the Declaration Came About. America's declaration of independence from the British Empire was the nation's founding moment. Thomas Jefferson's First Draft of the Declaration of Independence (1776) IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776. THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of This temporary exhibit at Monticello's David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center explores how the Declaration of Independence went from the tip of Thomas Jefferson's quill to an icon of democracy throughout the world. The Second Continental Congress received a draft of the Declaration from Jefferson that made the British rejection of the petition submitted by the First Continental Congress to end the slave trade one of the grounds for severing ties. Read a transcript of the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence as authored by Thomas Jefferson before it was edited by the larger Continental Congress. Much of Jefferson’s draft was ultimately adopted by the full Congress, but it removed his clause on the king’s culpability in promoting the slave trade in America and in encouraging slaves to rise up in insurrection against their slaveholders. Drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776 became the defining event in Thomas Jefferson's life. Drawing on documents, such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights, state and local calls for independence, and his own draft of a Virginia constitution, Jefferson wrote a stunning statement of the colonists' right to rebel against the British government and establish their own based on the The Declaration of Independence was drafted by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, and accused King George III of inciting insurrection and promoting the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Thomas Jefferson, June , Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence. -06, 1776. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib000156/>. As we celebrate the 272nd birthday of Thomas Jefferson, this excerpt from Jeffery Rosen and David Rubenstein's pamphlet about the “Constituting Liberty” exhibition puts the Declaration of Independence in context. Thomas Jefferson reading the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence to Benjamin Franklin. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images The exact circumstances of the passage’s removal may never be known. The "Declaration Committee," which included Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and John Adams of Massachusetts, was appointed by Congress on June 11, 1776, to draft a declaration in anticipation of an expected vote in favor of American independence Jefferson created the original draft of the Declaration of Independence before it was edited by the Continental Congress. Some of the major difference between the original and the final version include: replacing “sacred and undeniable” with “self-evident” and “that from that equal creation they derive in right inherent and inalienable” with “they are endowed by In anticipation of a vote for independence, the Continental Congress on June 11 appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston as a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee then delegated Thomas Jefferson to undertake the task. TJ originally wrote “fellowsubjects,” copying the term from the corresponding passage in the first page of the First Draft of the Virginia Constitution; then, while the ink was still wet on the “Rough draught” he expunged or erased “subjects” and wrote “citizens” over it.
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