Committee of Five

Last updated July 15, 2024

The Committee of Five of the Second Continental Congress was a group of five members who drafted and presented to the full Congress in Pennsylvania State House what would become the United States Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. This Declaration committee operated from June 11, 1776, until July 5, 1776, the day on which the Declaration was published.

The Committee of Five

The members of this committee were:

John Adams, representative of Massachusetts, who later became the second president of the United States^[1]
Thomas Jefferson, representative of Virginia, who later became the third president of the United States^[2]
Benjamin Franklin, representative of Pennsylvania, known as one of the most famous intellectuals among the Founding Fathers, whose academic writings and press publications had a very significant influence in the American Revolution, the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Alliance with France, Treaty of Paris, and U.S. Constitution
Roger Sherman, representative of Connecticut, the only person to sign all four of the U.S. state papers: the Continental Association, the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.^[3] Sherman proposed the Connecticut Compromise.
Robert Livingston, representative of New York, who later served as the first United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs, administered the presidential oath of office at the First inauguration of George Washington and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase as the minister to France.^[4]

Drafting of the Declaration of Independence

The delegates of the Thirteen Colonies in Congress resolved to postpone until Monday, July 1, the final consideration of whether or not to declare the several sovereign independencies of the Colonies, which had been proposed by the North Carolina resolutions of April 12 and the Virginia resolutions of May 15. The proposal, known as the Lee Resolution, was moved in Congress on June 7 by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. During these allotted three weeks Congress agreed to appoint a committee to draft a statement to outline the reasons for the Colonies seceding from the British Empire. The actual declaration of "American Independence" is precisely the text comprising the final paragraph of the published broadside of July 4. The broadside's final paragraph repeated the text of the Lee Resolution as adopted by the declaratory resolve voted on July 2.^{[ citation needed ]}

On June 11, the Committee of Five was appointed: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Because the committee left no minutes, there is some uncertainty about how the drafting process proceeded. Accounts written many years later by Jefferson and Adams, although frequently cited, vary in some respects.^[5]

The first draft

After discussing the general outline of the document, the Second Continental Congress decided that Jefferson would write the first draft.^[6] With Congress's busy schedule, Jefferson had limited time to write the draft over the ensuing 17 days.^[7] He then consulted with the others on the committee, who reviewed the draft and made extensive changes.^[8] Jefferson then produced another copy incorporating these alterations.^{[ citation needed ]}

Among the changes was the simplification of what Jefferson had termed "preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness" to the more succinct and sonorous phrase familiar to all today, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. This shares some similarities with, but is distinct from, John Locke's prior description of private property as a natural right, in the phrase "life, liberty, and estate".^[9]

Jefferson's first draft also considered a scathing criticism of Great Britain's use of slavery, which was later removed in order to avoid offending slaveholders.^[10]

Presentation of the draft

On June 28, 1776, the committee presented this copy to the "Committee of the Whole" Congress, which was commemorated by Trumbull’s famed painting. The title of the document was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled".^[11]

The signing

Although not officially noted, the estimated time was 6:26 p.m. (18:26 LMT) for the recording of this historic vote. The Congress then heard the report of the Committee of the Whole and declared the sovereign status of the United Colonies the following day, during the afternoon of July 2. The Committee of the Whole then turned to the Declaration, and it was given a second reading before adjournment.^[12]

Last minute arguments

On Wednesday, July 3, the Committee of the Whole gave the Declaration the third reading and commenced scrutiny of the precise wording of the proposed text. But for two passages in the Committee of Five's draft that were rejected by the Committee of the Whole the work was accepted without any other major changes. One was a critical reference to the English people and the other was a denunciation of the slave trade and of slavery itself.^{[ citation needed ]}

Jefferson wrote in his autobiography, of the two deleted passages:

The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offense. The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our Northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under these censures, for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.^[13]

As John Adams recalled many years later, this work of editing the proposed text was largely completed by the time of adjournment on July 3. However, the text's formal adoption was deferred until the following morning, when the Congress voted its agreement during the late morning of July 4.^[14]^[15]

Fair copy

The draft document as adopted was then referred back to the Committee of Five to prepare a "fair copy", this being the redrafted-as-corrected document prepared for delivery to the broadside printer, John Dunlap. And so the Committee of Five convened in the early evening of July 4 to complete its task.^[16]

Historians have had no documentary means by which to determine the identity of the authenticating party. It is unclear whether the Declaration was authenticated by the Committee of Five's signature, or the Committee submitted the fair copy to President Hancock for his authenticating signature, or the authentication awaited President John Hancock's signature on the printer's finished proof-copy of what became known as the Dunlap broadside.^{[ citation needed ]} Either way, upon the July 5 release of the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration, the Committee of Five's work was done.^[17]

The Dunlap broadside release to the public

Following release of the Dunlap broadside on July 5, the public could read who had signed the Declaration. Hancock's signature, as President of the Continental Congress, appears on the broadside, as does that of Continental Congress Secretary Charles Thomson in an attest. Memories of the participants proved to be very short on this particular historic moment. Not three decades had elapsed by which time the prominent members of the Committee of Five could no longer recollect either detail of what had actually taken place, or their active participation, on July 4 and 5 of 1776. And so during these early decades was born the durable myth of one grand ceremonial general signing on July 4, by all the delegates to Congress.^[18]

Related Research Articles

John Hancock was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He was the longest-serving president of the Continental Congress, having served as the second president of the Second Continental Congress and the seventh president of the Congress of the Confederation. He was the first and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that in the United States, John Hancock or Hancock has become a colloquialism for a person's signature. He also signed the Articles of Confederation, and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788.

The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in both the engrossed version and the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who convened at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia.

<i>1776</i> (musical) 1969 musical by Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone

1776 is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The show is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling a story of the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The show premiered on Broadway in 1969 where it received acclaim and won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The original production starred William Daniels as Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin.

Robert Robert Livingston was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat from New York, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor" after the high New York state legal office he held for 25 years. He was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Roger Sherman, but was recalled by the state of New York before he could sign the document. Livingston administered the oath of office to George Washington when he assumed the presidency April 30, 1789. Livingston was also elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1801.

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a text published in 1819 with the now disputed claim that it was the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Concord. If true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year.

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect. Like the other principles in the Declaration of Independence, this phrase is not legally binding, but has been widely referenced and seen as an inspiration for the basis of government.

The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5, 1775, and signed on July 8 in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America. The Congress had already authorized the invasion of Canada more than a week earlier, but the petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and entreated King George III to prevent further conflict. It was followed by the July 6 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, however, which made its success unlikely in London. In August 1775, the colonies were formally declared to be in rebellion by the Proclamation of Rebellion, and the petition was rejected by the British government; King George had refused to read it before declaring the colonists traitors.

The Second Continental Congress was the late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War, which established American independence from the British Empire. The Congress constituted a new federation that it first named the United Colonies, and in 1776, renamed the United States of America. The Congress began convening in Philadelphia, on May 10, 1775, with representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies, after the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

The Founding Fathers of the United States, commonly referred to as the Founding Fathers, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence from Great Britain, established the United States of America, and crafted a framework of government for the new nation.

Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.

The Lee Resolution, also known as "The Resolution for Independence", was the formal assertion passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776, resolving that the Thirteen Colonies were "free and independent States" and separate from the British Empire. This created what became the United States of America, and news of the act was published that evening in The Pennsylvania Evening Post and the following day in The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Declaration of Independence, which officially announced and explained the case for independence, was approved two days later, on July 4, 1776.

John Dunlap was an early American printer who emigrated from Ulster, Ireland and who printed the first copies of the United States Declaration of Independence and was one of the most successful Irish/American printers of his era. He served in the Continental Army under George Washington during the American Revolutionary War.

The United Colonies was the name used by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to describe the proto-state comprising the Thirteen Colonies in 1775 and 1776, before and as independence was declared. Continental currency banknotes displayed the name 'The United Colonies' from May 1775 until February 1777, and the name was being used as a colloquial phrase to refer to the colonies as a whole before the Second Congress met, although the precise place or date of its origin is unknown.

Declaration of Independence is a 12-by-18-foot oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist John Trumbull depicting the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. It was based on a much smaller version of the same scene, presently held by the Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life, and visited Independence Hall to depict the chamber where the Second Continental Congress met. The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the United States Capitol rotunda in 1826.

<i>1776</i> (film) 1972 film by Peter H. Hunt

1776 is a 1972 American historical musical comedy drama film directed by Peter H. Hunt and written by Peter Stone, based on his book for the 1969 Broadway musical of the same name, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards. Set in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, it is a fictionalized account of the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The film stars William Daniels, Howard da Silva, Donald Madden, John Cullum, Ken Howard and Blythe Danner.

Congress Voting Independence is a painting by Robert Edge Pine showing the interior of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It includes portraits of most of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. The artist worked on the painting from 1784 until his death in 1788. The painting is unfinished. It currently is held in Independence Hall.

The physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence spans from its original drafting in 1776 into the discovery of historical documents in modern time. This includes a number of drafts, handwritten copies, and published broadsides. The Declaration of Independence states that the Thirteen Colonies were now the "United Colonies" which "are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States"; and were no longer a part of the British Empire.

The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence occurred primarily on August 2, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress represented the Thirteen Colonies, 12 of the colonies voted to approve the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The New York delegation abstained because they had not yet received instructions from Albany to vote for independence. The Declaration proclaimed the Thirteen colonies were now "free and independent States", no longer colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain and, thus, no longer a part of the British Empire. The signers’ names are grouped by state, with the exception of John Hancock, as President of the Continental Congress; the states are arranged geographically from south to north, with Button Gwinnett from Georgia first, and Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire last.

The Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence is a memorial depicting the signatures of the 56 signatories to the United States Declaration of Independence. It is located in the Constitution Gardens on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The memorial is accessible to the public by crossing a wooden bridge onto a small island set in the lake between Constitution Avenue and the Reflecting Pool, not far from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The United States Constitution was first printed by Dunlap & Claypoole in 1787, during the Constitutional Convention. From the original printing, 13 original copies are known to exist.

References

↑ "John Adams". The White House. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
↑ "Thomas Jefferson". The White House. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
↑ Mangan, Gregg (October 10, 2020). "Roger Sherman, Revolutionary and Dedicated Public Servant". Connecticut History, a CT Humanities Project. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
↑ Beagle, Ben (February 23, 2021). "Livingston County marks 200 years". Livingston County News. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
↑ Maier, American Scripture, 97–105; Boyd, Evolution, 21.
↑ Boyd, Evolution, 22.
↑ Maier,American Scripture, 104.
↑ "Exhibition – Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents | Exhibitions – Library of Congress". Library of Congress . July 4, 1995. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2010., retrieved on October 29, 2013
↑ Locke, John (1988) [1689]. Laslett, Peter (ed.). Two Treatises of Government . Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sec. 87, 123, 209, 222. ISBN 052135448X.
↑ Williams, Yohuru. "Why Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence". HISTORY. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
↑ Becker, Declaration of Independence, 4.
↑ For verification of the afternoon July 2 date of this vote of Congress, see Harold Eberlein & Cortlandt Hubbard, Diary of Independence Hall (J.B. Lippincott Co., 1948), entry: Tuesday, July 2, 1776, pp. 171–72. See also John M. Coleman, THOMAS MCKEAN; Forgotten Leader of the Revolution (American Faculty Press, 1975), Chapter 11: Independence 1776, p. 174. See also Jane Harrington Scott, A Gentleman As Well As a Whig: Caesar Rodney and the American Revolution (University of Delaware Press, 2000), Chapter 15: Independence is Declared, p. 117 therein. Speculatively, an estimated time moment interval of 14:00 LMT up to 18:00 LMT appears to be the period during which this day's historic events reached completion by the vote in Congress and the newspaper report of independence declared.
↑ Autobiography, by Thomas Jefferson
↑ A New Jersey delegate to Congress, Abraham Clark, wrote to his friend Elias Dayton during the early morning of July 4, explaining Congress' recent editing of the Declaration:
Our Congress Resolved to Declare the United Colonies Free and the Independent States. A Declaration for this purpose, I expect, will this day pass Congress, it is nearly gone through, after which it will be Proclaimed with all the State & Solemnity Circumstances will admit. It is gone so far that we must now be a free independent State, or a Conquered Country.
So wrote Abraham Clark to Elias Dayton, in of Delegates to Congress, Vol. 4 May 16, 1776 – August 15, 1776, p. 378.
↑ For verification of the late morning July 4 time of Congress' agreement to the text of the Declaration, see Paul H. Smith, "Time and Temperature: Philadelphia, July 4, 1776", in The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, Vol. 33, No. 4, October 1976, p. 296. See also Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), Chapter III: Mr. Jefferson and His Editors, p. 150. Speculatively, an estimated time moment interval of 10:30 LMT up to 11:00 LMT appears to be the least unlikely period during which the voted adoption of the precise wording of the text of the Declaration was completed.
↑ For corroboration of time (16:45 to 18:35 LMT) of the completion of the 'fair copy' of the Declaration by the Committee of Five, see Edward Channing, A History of the United States. (N.Y: The MacMillan Co., 1912), Volume III: The American Revolution, 1761–1789; Chapter VII: The Declaration of Independence, pp. 182–209, wherein July 4th, p. 205. See also Edward Channing, A Short History of the United States. (N.Y: The MacMillan Co., 1908), Chapter V-15: The Great Declaration and the French Alliance, p. 146.
↑ The Congress left no record of when, during the night of July 4/5, President John Hancock affixed his authenticating signature to either the Committee's fair copy of the Dunlap broadside master copy (the printer's proof-copy). On the extant original copies of the printed broadside, one finds this: "Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, JOHN HANCOCK, President." For a scholarly appraisal of this national tragedy of the absent record of Hancock's signature moment, see Julian P. Boyd, "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original", in The Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. C, No. 4, October 1976, pp. 438–67.
↑ Congress may have taken as little as 33 days from the debates of July 1 to the opening of business on August 2, to establish "THE unanimous DECLARATION of the thirteen united STATES OF AMERICA", being the revised-format edition of the July 4 Declaration. This 'unanimous thirteen' edition remains on permanent public display, enshrined in the rotunda of the National Archives at Washington, D.C. For a partially successful effort to piece together the fragmented record of the genesis of the Declaration's creation during this 33-day interval, see Wilfred J. Ritz, "The Authentication of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776", in the Cornell Law School's Law and History Review. Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 1986, pp. 179–204. See also, Herbert Friedenwald, The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. (MacMillan & Co., 1904), pp. 138–51.

External links

Lee Resolution: "The Lee Resolution of June 7, 1776, born of the Virginia Resolve of May 15, 1776"^{[ dead link ]}.
Dunlap broadside: The Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence, as first published on July 5, 1776, entitled "A DECLARATION By The Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA In General Congress assembled".
Goddard broadside: The Goddard broadside of the Declaration of Independence, as first published on January 31, 1777, entitled "The unanimous DECLARATION of the Thirteen United States of AMERICA".

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "John Adams". The White House. Retrieved June 10, 2021.

[2] "Thomas Jefferson". The White House. Retrieved June 10, 2021.

[3] Mangan, Gregg (October 10, 2020). "Roger Sherman, Revolutionary and Dedicated Public Servant". Connecticut History, a CT Humanities Project. Retrieved June 10, 2021.

[4] Beagle, Ben (February 23, 2021). "Livingston County marks 200 years". Livingston County News. Retrieved June 10, 2021.

[5] Maier, American Scripture, 97–105; Boyd, Evolution, 21.

[6] Boyd, Evolution, 22.

[7] Maier,American Scripture, 104.

[8] "Exhibition – Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents | Exhibitions – Library of Congress". Library of Congress . July 4, 1995. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2010., retrieved on October 29, 2013

[Locke-Laslett1988-9] Locke, John (1988) [1689]. Laslett, Peter (ed.). Two Treatises of Government . Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sec. 87, 123, 209, 222. ISBN 052135448X.

[10] Williams, Yohuru. "Why Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence". HISTORY. Retrieved November 19, 2020.

[11] Becker, Declaration of Independence, 4.

[12] For verification of the afternoon July 2 date of this vote of Congress, see Harold Eberlein & Cortlandt Hubbard, Diary of Independence Hall (J.B. Lippincott Co., 1948), entry: Tuesday, July 2, 1776, pp. 171–72. See also John M. Coleman, THOMAS MCKEAN; Forgotten Leader of the Revolution (American Faculty Press, 1975), Chapter 11: Independence 1776, p. 174. See also Jane Harrington Scott, A Gentleman As Well As a Whig: Caesar Rodney and the American Revolution (University of Delaware Press, 2000), Chapter 15: Independence is Declared, p. 117 therein. Speculatively, an estimated time moment interval of 14:00 LMT up to 18:00 LMT appears to be the period during which this day's historic events reached completion by the vote in Congress and the newspaper report of independence declared.

[13] Autobiography, by Thomas Jefferson

[14] A New Jersey delegate to Congress, Abraham Clark, wrote to his friend Elias Dayton during the early morning of July 4, explaining Congress' recent editing of the Declaration:
Our Congress Resolved to Declare the United Colonies Free and the Independent States. A Declaration for this purpose, I expect, will this day pass Congress, it is nearly gone through, after which it will be Proclaimed with all the State & Solemnity Circumstances will admit. It is gone so far that we must now be a free independent State, or a Conquered Country.
So wrote Abraham Clark to Elias Dayton, in of Delegates to Congress, Vol. 4 May 16, 1776 – August 15, 1776, p. 378.

[15] For verification of the late morning July 4 time of Congress' agreement to the text of the Declaration, see Paul H. Smith, "Time and Temperature: Philadelphia, July 4, 1776", in The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, Vol. 33, No. 4, October 1976, p. 296. See also Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), Chapter III: Mr. Jefferson and His Editors, p. 150. Speculatively, an estimated time moment interval of 10:30 LMT up to 11:00 LMT appears to be the least unlikely period during which the voted adoption of the precise wording of the text of the Declaration was completed.

[16] For corroboration of time (16:45 to 18:35 LMT) of the completion of the 'fair copy' of the Declaration by the Committee of Five, see Edward Channing, A History of the United States. (N.Y: The MacMillan Co., 1912), Volume III: The American Revolution, 1761–1789; Chapter VII: The Declaration of Independence, pp. 182–209, wherein July 4th, p. 205. See also Edward Channing, A Short History of the United States. (N.Y: The MacMillan Co., 1908), Chapter V-15: The Great Declaration and the French Alliance, p. 146.

[17] The Congress left no record of when, during the night of July 4/5, President John Hancock affixed his authenticating signature to either the Committee's fair copy of the Dunlap broadside master copy (the printer's proof-copy). On the extant original copies of the printed broadside, one finds this: "Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, JOHN HANCOCK, President." For a scholarly appraisal of this national tragedy of the absent record of Hancock's signature moment, see Julian P. Boyd, "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original", in The Pennsylvania Magazine. Vol. C, No. 4, October 1976, pp. 438–67.

[18] Congress may have taken as little as 33 days from the debates of July 1 to the opening of business on August 2, to establish "THE unanimous DECLARATION of the thirteen united STATES OF AMERICA", being the revised-format edition of the July 4 Declaration. This 'unanimous thirteen' edition remains on permanent public display, enshrined in the rotunda of the National Archives at Washington, D.C. For a partially successful effort to piece together the fragmented record of the genesis of the Declaration's creation during this 33-day interval, see Wilfred J. Ritz, "The Authentication of the Engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776", in the Cornell Law School's Law and History Review. Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 1986, pp. 179–204. See also, Herbert Friedenwald, The Declaration of Independence: An Interpretation and an Analysis. (MacMillan & Co., 1904), pp. 138–51.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

v t e Thomas Jefferson
3rd President of the United States (1801–1809) 2nd Vice President of the United States (1797–1801) 1st United States Secretary of State (1790–1793) U.S. Minister to France (1785–1789) Delegate to the Congress of the Confederation (1783–1784) 2nd Governor of Virginia (1779–1781) Delegate to the Second Continental Congress (1775–1776) Delegate, Fifth Virginia Convention (1776)
Founding documents of the United States	A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774) Olive Branch Petition (initial draft; 1775) Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775) Declaration of Independence (1776) Committee of Five authored physical history "All men are created equal" "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" "Consent of the governed" Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1777 draft and 1786 passage Freedom of religion Land Ordinance of 1784 Land Ordinance of 1785 Northwest Ordinance (1787)
French Revolution	Co-author, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
Presidency	Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves Louisiana Purchase Lewis and Clark Expedition Corps of Discovery timeline Empire of Liberty Dunbar and Hunter Expedition Red River Expedition Pike Expedition Cumberland Road Embargo Act of 1807 Chesapeake–Leopard affair Non-Intercourse Act First Barbary War Native American policy Burr conspiracy Marbury v. Madison West Point Military Academy State of the Union Addresses 1801 1802 1805 Cabinet Federal judicial appointments
Other noted accomplishments	Early life and career Franco-American alliance Founder, University of Virginia history Ratification Day Anti-Administration party Democratic-Republican Party Jeffersonian democracy First Party System republicanism Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States (1790) Residence Act Compromise of 1790 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions A Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1801) American Creed Jefferson disk Swivel chair Megalonyx
Jeffersonian architecture	Barboursville Farmington Monticello gardens Poplar Forest University of Virginia The Rotunda The Lawn Jefferson Hall Virginia State Capitol White House Colonnades
Other writings	The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at war with the Pyratical states of Barbary (1786) European journey memorandums (1787) Indian removal letters The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (c. 1819) Jefferson manuscript collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society Founders Online
Related	Age of Enlightenment American Enlightenment American Philosophical Society American Revolution patriots Member, Virginia Committee of Correspondence Committee of the States Founding Fathers of the United States Historical reputation Jefferson and education Religious views Jefferson and slavery Jefferson and the Library of Congress Jefferson Pier Pet mockingbird National Gazette Sally Hemings Jefferson–Hemings controversy Betty Hemings Separation of church and state The American Museum magazine Tufton Farm Governor's Palace (Williamsburg, Virginia) Virginia dynasty Ward republic
Elections	Presidential elections 1796 1800 1804
Legacy and memorials	Bibliography Jefferson Memorial Mount Rushmore Birthday Thomas Jefferson Building Jefferson River Jefferson Territory Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression Jefferson Lecture Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service Statues Karl Bitter statues Hempstead statue Louisville statue University of Virginia statue David d'Angers statue Jefferson Literary and Debating Society Thomas Jefferson Foundation Jefferson Lab Monticello Association Jefferson City, Missouri Jefferson College Thomas Jefferson School of Law Thomas Jefferson University Washington and Jefferson National Forests Peaks and mountains Jefferson Rock Other placenames Jefferson–Jackson Day Currency depictions Jefferson nickel Two-dollar bill Louisiana Purchase Exposition gold dollar Mount Rushmore Anniversary coins 250th Anniversary silver dollar U.S. postage stamps Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Cultural depictions	The Patriots (1946 play) Ben and Me (1953 short) 1776 1969 musical 1972 film Jefferson in Paris (1995 film) Thomas Jefferson (1997 film) Liberty! (1997 documentary series) Liberty's Kids (2002 animated series) John Adams (2008 miniseries) Jefferson's Garden (2015 play) Hamilton 2015 musical 2020 film Washington (2020 miniseries) Wine bottles controversy Cultural depictions of Sally Hemings
Family	Martha Jefferson (wife) Martha Jefferson Randolph (daughter) Mary Jefferson Eppes (daughter) Harriet Hemings (daughter) Madison Hemings (son) Eston Hemings (son) Thomas J. Randolph (grandson) Francis Eppes (grandson) George W. Randolph (grandson) John Wayles Jefferson (grandson) Frederick Madison Roberts (great-grandson) Peter Jefferson (father) Jane Randolph Jefferson (mother) Lucy Jefferson Lewis (sister) Randolph Jefferson (brother) Isham Randolph (grandfather) William Randolph (great-grandfather)
← John Adams James Madison → ← John Adams Aaron Burr → Category

v t e Benjamin Franklin
President of Pennsylvania (1785–1788) Ambassador to France (1779–1785) Second Continental Congress (1775–1776)
Founding of the United States	Join, or Die. (1754 political cartoon) Albany Plan of Union Albany Congress Hutchinson letters affair Committee of Secret Correspondence Committee of Five "...to be self-evident" Declaration of Independence Model Treaty Franco-American alliance Treaty of Amity and Commerce Treaty of Alliance Staten Island Peace Conference 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution Libertas Americana Treaty of Paris, 1783 Delegate, 1787 Constitutional Convention Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly Postmaster General Founding Fathers
Inventions, other events	Franklin's electrostatic machine Bifocals Franklin stove Glass armonica Gulf Stream exploration, naming, and chart Lightning rod Kite experiment Pay it forward Associators 111th Infantry Regiment Junto club American Philosophical Society Library Company of Philadelphia Pennsylvania Hospital Academy and College of Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Contributionship Union Fire Company Early American currency Continental Currency dollar coin Fugio cent United States Postal Service Street lighting President, Pennsylvania Abolition Society Master, Les Neuf Sœurs Gravesite
Writings	The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Founders Online Silence Dogood letters (1722) A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain (1725) The Busy-Body columns (1729) The Pennsylvania Gazette (1729–1790) Early American publishers and printers Poor Richard's Almanack (1732–1758) The Drinker's Dictionary (1737) "Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress" (1745) "The Speech of Polly Baker" (1747) Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc. (1751) Experiments and Observations on Electricity (1751) Birch letters (1755) The Way to Wealth (1758) Pennsylvania Chronicle (1767) Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One (1773) Proposed alliance with the Iroquois (1775) A Letter to a Royal Academy (1781) Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784) "The Morals of Chess" (1786) An Address to the Public (1789) A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks (1789) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1771–1790, pub. 1791) Bagatelles and Satires (pub. 1845) Franklin as a journalist Franklin's phonetic alphabet
Legacy	Bibliography Franklin Court Benjamin Franklin House Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology Benjamin Franklin Parkway Benjamin Franklin National Memorial Franklin Institute awards medal Benjamin Franklin Medal Royal Society of Arts medal Depicted in The Apotheosis of Washington Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Treaty of Paris (1783 painting) Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (1816 painting) Revolutionary War Door Boston statue Chicago statue Columbus, Ohio, statue University of Pennsylvania statue Portland, Oregon, statue San Francisco statue Stanford University statue Washington D.C. statue Jefferson Memorial pediment In popular culture Ben and Me (1953 short) Ben Franklin in Paris (1964 musical play) 1776 (1969 musical 1972 film) Benjamin Franklin (miniseries) A More Perfect Union (1989 film) Liberty! (1997 documentary series) Liberty's Kids (2002 animated series) Benjamin Franklin (2002 documentary series) John Adams (2008 miniseries) Sons of Liberty (2015 miniseries) Benjamin Franklin (2022 documentary) Franklin (2024 miniseries) Refunding Certificate Franklin half dollar One-hundred-dollar bill Franklin silver dollar Washington–Franklin stamps other stamps Cities, counties, schools named for Franklin Benjamin Franklin College Franklin Field Mount Franklin State of Franklin Sons of Ben (Philadelphia Union) Ships named USS Franklin Ben Franklin effect
Related	Age of Enlightenment American Enlightenment The New-England Courant The American Museum magazine American Revolution patriots Syng inkstand
Family	Deborah Read (wife) William Franklin (son) Francis Franklin (son) Sarah Franklin Bache (daughter) William Franklin (grandson) Benjamin F. Bache (grandson) Louis F. Bache (grandson) Richard Bache Jr. (grandson) Andrew Harwood (great-grandson) Alexander Bache (great-grandson) Josiah Franklin (father) James Franklin (brother) Jane Mecom (sister) Mary Morrell Folger (grandmother) Peter Folger (grandfather) Richard Bache (son-in-law) Ann Smith Franklin (sister-in-law)
Category

v t e John Adams
2nd President of the United States (1797–1801) 1st Vice President of the United States (1789–1797) U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom (1785–1788) U.S. Minister to the Netherlands (1782–1788) Delegate to the Second Continental Congress (1775–1778) Delegate to the First Continental Congress (1774)
Founding of the United States	Braintree Instructions (1765) Boston Massacre defense Continental Association Petition to the King United Colonies Thoughts on Government (1776) Lee Resolution (seconded) Declaration of Independence May 15 preamble Committee of Five Model Treaty Treaty of Amity and Commerce Treaty of Alliance Board of War Chairman of the Marine Committee, 1775-1779 Continental Navy Staten Island Peace Conference Conference House Constitution of Massachusetts (1780) Treaty of Paris, 1783 Diplomacy
Elections	United States presidential election 1788–1789 1792 1796 1800
Presidency	Inauguration Quasi War with France XYZ Affair United States Department of the Navy Commerce Protection Act United States Marine Corps Convention of 1800 Mississippi Organic Act Alien and Sedition Acts Naturalization Act of 1798 Sick and Disabled Seamen Relief Act Marine Hospital Service Bankruptcy Act of 1800 Indiana Organic Act Slave Trade Act of 1800 District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 Navy Department Library Treaty of Tellico Treaty of Tripoli Midnight Judges Act Marbury v. Madison State of the Union Address (1797 1798 1799 1800) Cabinet Federal judiciary appointments
Other writings	Massachusetts Historical Society holdings Adams Papers Editorial Project A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams Founders Online Gray v. Pitts
Life and homes	Early life and education Adams National Historical Park John Adams Birthplace Family home and John Quincy Adams birthplace Peacefield Stone Library Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University Presidents House, Philadelphia Co-founder and second president, American Academy of Arts and Sciences United First Parish Church and gravesite
Legacy	Bibliography List of memorials Adams Memorial (proposed) John Adams Building John Adams Courthouse Jefferson Memorial pediment U.S. Postage stamps Treaty of Paris (1783 painting) USS Adams (1799) USS John Adams (1799) USS Adams (1874) USS President Adams (1941) USS John Adams (1963) Adams House at Harvard University Mount Adams (New Hampshire, Washington) Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Popular culture	Profiles in Courage (1964 series) American Primitive (1969 play) 1776 (1969 musical 1972 film) The Adams Chronicles (1976 miniseries) Liberty! (1997 documentary series) Liberty's Kids (2002 animated series) John Adams (2001 book 2008 miniseries) John and Abigail Adams (2006 documentary film) Sons of Liberty (2015 miniseries) Franklin (2024 miniseries)
Related	"Adams and Liberty" campaign song Adams' personal library American Enlightenment Congress Hall Federalist Party Federalist Era First Party System republicanism American Philosophical Society Gazette of the United States The American Museum American Revolution patriots Founding Fathers
Adams family	Abigail Adams wife Quincy family Abigail Adams Smith (daughter) John Quincy Adams son presidency Charles Adams (son) Thomas Boylston Adams (son) George W. Adams (grandson) Charles Adams Sr. (grandson) John Adams II (grandson) John Q. Adams (great-grandson) Henry Adams (great-grandson) Brooks Adams (great-grandson) John Adams Sr. (father) Susanna Boylston (mother) Elihu Adams (brother) Samuel Adams (second cousin) Louisa Adams daughter-in-law first lady
← George Washington Thomas Jefferson → Thomas Jefferson → Category

v t e Robert Livingston
United States founding	Committee of Five (Declaration of Independence) New York Constitution (1777) United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs (1781-1783)
Events	Louisiana Purchase (negotiated) North River Steamboat
Legacy	Jefferson Memorial Committee of Five pediment Robert Livingston (1875 statue) SS Robert R. Livingston
Related	Robert Livingston (father) Edward Livingston (brother) Robert Livingston (grandfather) Clermont State Historic Site First inauguration of George Washington 1776 (1969 musical, 1972 film)

v t e Roger Sherman
United States Senator, Connecticut, 1791–1793 U.S. House of Representatives, Connecticut's at-large district, 1789–1791 1st Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, 1784–1793 Delegate, Continental Congress, 1774–1781, 1784 Governor's Council, Connecticut General Assembly, 1766–1785 Connecticut House of Representatives, 1755–1758, 1760–1761
United States Founding events	Continental Association (signed) Petition to the King (signed) Declaration of Independence (co-wrote, signed, Committee of Five) Articles of Confederation (signed) United States Constitution (co-wrote, signed, Great Compromise, Article One, Section 10)
Legacy	Statue of Roger Sherman Committee of Five pediment, Jefferson Memorial Sherman, Connecticut Sherman, New York Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Portrayals	1776 (1969 musical, 1972 film)
Related	Founding Fathers
Family	Rebecca Minot Prescott (second wife) Roger Sherman Baldwin (grandson) Sherman Day (grandson) Ebenezer R. Hoar (grandson) William M. Evarts (grandson) George F. Hoar (grandson)