Drafting the Documents
Thomas Jefferson drafted
the Declaration of
Independence in
Philadelphia behind a
veil of Congressionally
imposed secrecy in June
1776 for a country
wracked by military and
political uncertainties.
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.
Jefferson worked
diligently in private
for days to compose a
document. Proof of the
arduous nature of the
work can be seen in the
fragment of the first
known composition draft
of the declaration,
which is on public
display here for the
first time.
Jefferson then made a
clean or "fair" copy of
the composition
declaration, which
became the foundation of
the document, labeled by
Jefferson as the
"original Rough
draught." Revised first
by Adams, then by
Franklin, and then by
the full committee, a
total of forty-seven
alterations including
the insertion of three
complete paragraphs was
made on the text before
it was presented to
Congress on June 28.
After voting for
independence on July 2,
the Congress then
continued to refine the
document, making
thirty-nine additional
revisions to the
committee draft before
its final adoption on
the morning of July 4.
The "original Rough
draught" embodies the
multiplicity of
corrections, additions
and deletions that were
made at each step.
Although most of the
alterations are in
Jefferson's handwriting
(Jefferson later
indicated the changes he
believed to have been
made by Adams and
Franklin), quite
naturally he opposed
many of the changes made
to his document.
Congress then ordered
the Declaration of
Independence printed and
late on July 4, John
Dunlap, a Philadelphia
printer, produced the
first printed text of
the Declaration of
Independence, now known
as the "Dunlap
Broadside." The next day
John Hancock, the
president of the
Continental Congress,
began dispatching copies
of the Declaration to
America's political and
military leaders. On
July 9, George
Washington ordered that
his personal copy of the
"Dunlap Broadside," sent
to him by John Hancock
on July 6, be read to
the assembled American
army at New York. In
1783 at the war's end,
General Washington
brought his copy of the
broadside home to Mount
Vernon. This remarkable
document, which has come
down to us only
partially intact, is
accompanied in this
exhibit by a complete
"Dunlap Broadside" --
one of only twenty-four
known to exist.
On July 19, Congress
ordered the production
of an engrossed
(officially inscribed)
copy of the Declaration
of Independence, which
attending members of the
Continental Congress,
including some who had
not voted for its
adoption, began to sign
on August 2, 1776. This
document is on permanent
display at the National
Archives.
On July 4, 1995, more
than two centuries after
its composition, the
Declaration of
Independence, just as
Jefferson predicted on
its fiftieth anniversary
in his letter to Roger
C. Weightman, towers
aloft as "the signal of
arousing men to burst
the chains...to assume
the blessings and
security of
self-government" and to
restore "the free right
to the unbounded
exercise of reason and
freedom of opinion."
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