Even at this late date, the Congress still blamed only Parliament and the king's government ministers, not King George himself, for the growing conflict. Soon after Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia, Congress assigned him to draft a document explaining why the colonists had taken up arms against England. But the "British brethren" refused to do this. Colonists even appealed to the British people, pleading with them to elect different members of Parliament who would be more open to compromise. Even so, most in Congress wanted to work out some mutual agreement with the mother country.įor more than a year, the Americans had sent petitions to England proclaiming their grievances against the British government. Fighting at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill had already broken out between the colonists and British troops. Thomas Jefferson, age 33, arrived in Philadelphia on June 20, 1775, as a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson, drawing on the current thinking of his time, used natural rights ideas to justify declaring independence from England.
For the sake of unity and in the interests of issuing the Declaration of Independence, even those such as John Adams who were opposed to slavery agreed to the revisions.ĭespite being a slave owner, Jefferson complained bitterly about Congress ‘mangling’ his draft and remained upset about the removal of the condemnation of slavery.The Declaration of Independence and Natural Rights This text, highly controversial at the time, was opposed by many Congressmen and especially the delegation from South Carolina and Georgia – two southern states whose economies depended heavily on plantation farming and slavery. “He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.” One of the many tyrannical behaviours that Jefferson’s draft accused King George III of was the creation of and support for the slave trade. What is important for the purposes of this blog is the text that was deleted – especially the provisions Jefferson had drafted arguing against slavery. The Committee tabled their draft on 28 June 1776 and a resolution declaring independence was agreed on 2 July 1776.Ĭongress now turned its attentions to the text of the draft Declaration and, over the course of the next two days, Congress would review, debate, edit and delete Jefferson’s original text. Livingstone and Roger Sherman, but the force behind the draft was Jefferson. The ‘ Committee of Five’ consisted of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. On 11 June 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a five person sub-committee to draft a declaration of independence.
All men are born equal drivers#
“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?” The irony, if not hypocrisy, of this unambiguous statement set against the realty for hundreds of thousands of slaves in the America of the 1770s, was not missed. But its universal application was somewhat limited – it was drafted by a slave-owner and adopted by many Congressmen who also owned slaves.
They are fine words which continue to reverberate down the centuries. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The second paragraph features the famous introduction: What changed between the final draft by Jefferson and the approved version provide a fascinating insight in to American society and politics at the time of the War of Independence.Īs a rousing text, Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence has few equals.
His original draft was, however, reviewed and edited by the Second Continental Congress before it was approved, printed and signed. The Declaration of Independence of the United States was drafted by Thomas Jefferson.
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