DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE:
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Through the many revisions made by Jefferson, the committee, and then by Congress, Jefferson retained his prominent role in writing the defining document of the American Revolution and, indeed, of the United States. Jefferson was critical of changes to the document, particularly the removal of a long paragraph that attributed responsibility of the slave trade to British King George III. Jefferson was justly proud of his role in writing the Declaration of Independence and skillfully defended his authorship of this hallowed document. |
INFLUENTIAL PRECEDENTS |
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Instructions to Virginia's Delegates
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George Mason and George Washington.
Fairfax County Resolves, 1774. Manuscript. Manuscript Division (40) |
Fairfax County Resolves, July 18, 1774The Fairfax County Resolves were written by George Mason (1725-1792) and George Washington (1732/33-1799) and adopted by a Fairfax County Convention chaired by Washington and called to protest Britain's harsh measures against Boston. The resolves are a clear statement of constitutional rights considered to be fundamental to Britain's American colonies. The Resolves call for a halt to trade with Great Britain, including an end to the importation of slaves. Jefferson tried unsuccessfully to include in the Declaration of Independence a condemnation of British support of the slave trade. |
George Mason's Virginia
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George Mason and Thomas Ludwell Lee.
Draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776. Manuscript. Manuscript Division (41) |
Thomas Jefferson's Draft
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THE FRAGMENT | |
Fragment of the earliest known
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Thomas Jefferson.
Draft fragment of the Declaration of Independence, 1776, Manuscript. Manuscript Division (48) |
THE ROUGH DRAFT |
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Original Rough Draft of the DeclarationWritten in June 1776, Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, included eighty-six changes made later by John Adams (1735-1826), Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790), other members of the committee appointed to draft the document, and by Congress. The "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence, one of the great milestones in American history, shows the evolution of the text from the initial composition draft by Jefferson to the final text adopted by Congress on the morning of July 4, 1776. At a later date perhaps in the nineteenth century, Jefferson indicated in the margins some but not all of the corrections suggested by Adams and Franklin. Late in life Jefferson endorsed this document: "Independence Declaration of original Rough draught." |
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The Graff House where Jefferson drafted the Declaration of IndependenceThe house of Jacob Graff, brick mason, located at the southwest corner of Market and Seventh Street, Philadelphia, was the residence of Thomas Jefferson when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. The three-story brick house is pictured here in Harper's Weekly, April 7, 1883. Jefferson rented the entire second floor for himself and his household staff. |
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Edward Savage and/or Robert Edge Pine.
Congress Voting the Declaration of Independence, c. 1776. Copyprint of oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (53) |
Submitting the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress, June 28, 1776This image is considered one of the most realistic renditions of this historical event. Jefferson is the tall person depositing the Declaration of Independence on the table. Benjamin Franklin sits to his right. John Hancock (1737-1793) sits behind the table. Fellow committee members, John Adams, Roger Sherman (1721-1793), and Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813) stand (left to right) behind Jefferson. |
The "Declaration Committee,"
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Currier and Ives.
The Declaration Committee, New York, 1876. Copyprint of lithograph. Prints and Photographs Division (56) |
THE FINAL DOCUMENT |
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[In Congress,
July 4, 1776.
A Declaration By the Representatives of the United States of America, In General Congress Assembled.] [Philadelphia: John Dunlap, July 4, 1776]. Broadside with broken at lines 34 and 54 with text below line 54 missing. Manuscript Division (51) |
George Washington's copy of the
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Independence HallCongress voted for Independence in the Pennsylvania State House located on Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Charles Willson Peale painted this northwest view of the state house and its sheds in 1778. The building was ornamented by two clocks and a steeple, which was removed shortly after the British left Philadelphia in 1778. |
![]() James Trenchard after a painting
by Charles Willson Peale. A NW View of the State House in Philadelphia in Columbian Magazine, 1787. Copyprint of engraving. Rare Book & Special Collections Division (44) |
George Heap under the direction
of Nicholas Scull, surveyor general of Pennsylvania. Prospect of the City of Philadelphia, 1768. Copyprint of map and engraving. Prints and Photographs Division (6) |
Prospect of PhiladelphiaThis is a view of the city of Philadelphia in 1768 from the Jersey shore, with a street map and an enlarged engraving of the State House and the River Battery. Jefferson would have seen Philadelphia, as depicted, when he visited Annapolis, Philadelphia, and New York in 1766. The Philadelphia skyline had not dramatically changed when Jefferson returned in 1775. |
Destroying the statue of King George IIIAfter hearing the Declaration of Independence read on July 9, the American army destroyed the statue of King George III at the foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green in New York City. |
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First public reading of the
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THE AFTERMATH |
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Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence, as reported to CongressThis copy of the Declaration represents the fair copy that the committee presented to Congress. Jefferson noted that "the parts struck out by Congress shall be distinguished by a black line drawn under them, & those inserted by them shall be placed in the margin or in a concurrent column." Despite its importance in the story of the evolution of the text, this copy of the Declaration has received very little public attention. |
Thomas Jefferson.
Draft of Declaration of Independence, 1776. Manuscript. Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 Manuscript Division (50) |
Jefferson consoled for
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The Goddess Of LibertyIn this allegorical print, the Goddess of Liberty points to Thomas Jefferson's portrait while gazing at the portrait of George Washington. It was made late in Jefferson's second presidential administration. The cupids here are the Genius of Peace and the Genius of Gratitude, and in this context Jefferson is "Liberty's Genius." |
The Goddess
of Liberty with a
Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, Salem, Massachusetts, January 15, 1807. Copyprint of painting. Courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery, the Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (32) |
Benjamin Randolph after a
design by Thomas Jefferson. Portable writing desk, Philadelphia, 1776. Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (30) |
Thomas Jefferson's portable writing deskThe Declaration of Independence was composed on this mahogany lap desk, designed by Jefferson and built by Philadelphia cabinet maker Benjamin Randolph. Jefferson gave it to Joseph Coolidge, Jr. (1798-1879) when he married Ellen Randolph, Jefferson's granddaughter. In giving it, Jefferson wrote on November 18, 1825: "Politics, as well as Religion, has it's superstitions. These, gaining strength with time, may, one day give imaginary value to this relic, for it's association with the birth of the Great Charter of our Independence." Coolidge replied, on February 27, 1826, that he would consider the desk "no longer inanimate, and mute, but as something to be interrogated and caressed." |
Thomas Jefferson's
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Probably by William Cowan.
Silver pen, Richmond, Virginia, c.1824. Courtesy of the Monticello, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc. (31) |
Lord Kames (Henry Home).
Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion. Two parts. Edinburgh: R. Fleming, for A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, 1751. Rare Book and Special Collections Division (34) |
Lord Kames, Henry Home,
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Algernon Sidney, Discourses
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Algernon Sidney.
Discourses Concerning Government by Algernon Sidney with his Letters, Trial Apology and some Memoirs of His Life. London: Printed for A. Millar, 1763. Rare Book and Special Collections Division (35) |
Cornelius Tiebout.
Thomas Jefferson: President of the United States, Philadelphia, 1801. Copyprint of engraving. Prints and Photographs Division (95) |
Liberty And ScienceThomas Jefferson is pictured, at the beginning of his first presidential term, holding the Declaration of Independence with scientific instruments in the background. Tiebout used the bust portrait of Rembrandt Peale and created an imaginary full-body, because no standing portrait of Jefferson had been painted. |
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