![]() ![]() ![]() The process of consideration and revision of Jefferson’s declaration (including Adams’ and Franklin’s corrections) continued on July 3 and into the late morning of July 4, during which Congress deleted and revised some one-fifth of its text. The Continental Congress reconvened on July 1, and the following day 12 of the 13 colonies adopted Lee’s resolution for independence. The body of Jefferson’s draft contained a list of grievances against the British crown, but it was its preamble to the Constitution that would strike the deepest chords in the minds and hearts of future Americans: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Adams requesting their corrections…I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered to the Congress.” “We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident…” I consented I drew it but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Still, it was he who was given the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence, which would become the foremost statement of human liberty and equality ever written.Īccording to an account Jefferson wrote in 1823, the other members of the committee “unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught. Jefferson was the only southerner on the committee, and had arrived in Philadelphia accompanied by three of his many slaves. Livingston of New York–that was charged with drafting a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. On June 11, Jefferson was appointed to a five-man committee–alongside John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. ![]() On June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia formally presented a resolution before the Congress, stating that “hese United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” It became known as the Lee Resolution, or the resolution for independence. By the late spring of 1776, more and more colonists favored an official and permanent break from Great Britain in mid-May, eight of the 13 colonies said they would support independence. The 33-year-old Jefferson may have been a shy, awkward public speaker in Congressional debates, but he used his skills as a writer and correspondent to support the patriotic cause. In the spring of 1775, shortly after skirmishes broke out between colonial militiamen and British soldiers at Lexington and Concord, the Virginia legislature sent Jefferson as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Published as a political pamphlet without Jefferson’s permission, this document extended Jefferson’s reputation beyond Virginia, and he became known as an eloquent voice for the cause of American independence from Britain. In 1774, Jefferson wrote “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” in which he claimed that the colonies were tied to the king only by voluntary bonds of loyalty. He died on July 4, 1826-hours before his good friend and former political rival John Adams-on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. That same year, Jefferson began building Monticello, his hilltop estate in Albemarle County he would later greatly expand his holdings in land and slaves through his marriage to Martha Wayles Skelton in 1772.ĭid you know? After leaving Washington, Thomas Jefferson spent the last two decades of his life at Monticello. In 1768, Jefferson stood as a candidate for the Virginia House of Burgesses he entered the legislature just as opposition was building to the taxation policies of the British government. Born into one of the most prominent families in Virginia (on his mother’s side), Jefferson studied at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and began practicing law in 1767. ![]()
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