The Committee of Five were responsible for drafting the Declaration

• Thomas Jefferson of Virginia

• John Adams of Massachusetts

• Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania

• Roger Sherman of Connecticut

• Robert R. Livingston of New York

 

How was the Committee of Five formed?

• It’s not formally known how delegates were chosen for this, or any, committee; neither the convention nor any delegate left a record of the procedure they followed

• That said, it’s likely that committee members were chosen by delegates voting as individuals within “the house”; this article lays out the argument in greater detail

• So, while it’s historically not on record why these five individuals specifically, we can surmise that they won a majority vote with the delegates present at the time

 

Choosing the main writer

• Originally, the delegates had wanted Richard Henry Lee to write the Declaration, since he had penned the Lee Resolution.

• Lee didn’t write it for two reasons:

  • Lee was appointed to the Committee of Confederation to write the Articles of Confederation, and thought that being part of both committees would be too much effort

  • Lee’s wife also became gravely ill during the Philadelphia convention, forcing him to return home prematurely

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Did Jefferson actually want the job?

• According to John Adams, Jefferson had to be persuaded, on the grounds of having the least enemies and being the best writer (this passage is from a letter to Timothy Pickering, Adams's friend and another politician):

  • “Jefferson proposed to me to make the draft. I said, 'I will not,' 'You should do it.' 'Oh! no.' 'Why will you not? You ought to do it.' 'I will not.' 'Why?' 'Reasons enough.' 'What can be your reasons?' 'Reason first, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second, I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason third, you can write ten times better than I can.' 'Well,' said Jefferson, 'if you are decided, I will do as well as I can.' 'Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting.'”

• That said, Jefferson would have likely gotten the job no matter what: he had been elected chair of the committee.

• Jefferson disputed Adams's account later on; in 1823, he described the process like this:

  • The committee “unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught [sic]. I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams requesting their corrections…I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered to the Congress.”

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What about the other three members?

• Couldn't be Benjamin Franklin: the document needed to be palatable to the Southern states, and Franklin was also on the Committee of Secret Correspondence, which already kept him plenty busy

• No evidence that Roger Sherman or Robert R. Livingston were ever considered for the role of principal author

• Robert R. Livingston did not actually leave for the stork (which conveniently rhymes with "York"), but for the New York Convention