The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson’s Draft of the Declaration of Independence
The Declaration is a foundational document in American history. Its own history, however, is often forgotten. It was as much a product of debate, revision, and political compromise as any other document.
Introduction
Thomas Jefferson included three accomplishments on his tombstone. They included that he was the author of the Statue of Virginia for religious freedom, that he was the “Father of the University of Virginia”, and first among them, “Author of the Declaration of American Independence”. Jefferson was a member of the “Committee of Five” along with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston in charge of drafting the Declaration of Independence. The Committee of Five agreed to have Jefferson be the principle author of the document. Jefferson disapproved of the final version adopted by Second Continental Congress, claiming that they had “mangled” it.
While the Committee mostly changed the work stylistically, a serious substantive change was made to Jefferson’s list of Grievances. The list of Grievances contained proofs of King George III’s abuses against the colonies. Jefferson claimed that the King had foisted slavery on the colonies and had used his veto power to limit colonial attempts to limit slavery. The grievance was likely taken out to appease pro-slavery factions in the Deep South, especially South Carolina.
How would this proposed Grievance have changed the complexion of the Declaration of Independence? How does this proposed Grievance reconcile with Jefferson’s procession of slaves?
Justin Hawkins
Further Reading
Sources
- Thomas Jefferson. Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence, June 1776.
- Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
- Transcription by Michael Becker and Dylan Bails.
Cite this page
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A Declaration by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a one people to
[to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to] dissolve the political bonds which have connected with another, and to as
-sume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant station separate and equal station to
which the laws of nature & of nature’s god entitle them, a decent respect
to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the change the separation.
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable self-evident; that all men are
created equal & independant that from that equal creation they derive they are endowed by their creator with equal
in rights rights, [?] [certain inherent &] inalienable rights; that among which these are the preservation of
life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends rights, go-
vernments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government
shall becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter
or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on
such principles & organising it’s powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. prudence indeed
will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for
light & transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that
mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but
when a long train of abuses & usurpations, [begun at a distinguished period,
&] pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject reduce
them to arbitrary power +Dr. Franklin’s handwriting under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government & to provide new guards for their future security, such has
been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now the necessity
which constrains them to [expunge] alter their former systems of government.
the history of his the present majesty *Mr. Adams’s handwritingKing of Great Britain is a history of [unremitting] repeated injuries and
usurpations, [among which no one fact stands single or solitary appears no solitary fact to contra-
-dict the uniform tenor of the rest, [all of which]but all have [have] having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. to prove this, let facts be
submitted to a candid world, [for the truth of which we pledge a faith
yet unsullied by falsehood.]
he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the pub-
-lic good:
he has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate & pressing importance,
unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained;
and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected utterly to attend to them.
he has refused to pass other laws for the accomodation of large districts of people
unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right
inestimable to them, & formidable to tyrants only:
[text under slip: He has dissolved Representative Houses, repeatedly, and continually, for opposing with
manly Firmness his Invasions on the rights of the people.]
he called together legislature bodies at places unusual, [unco?] from
the depositing of their public records for the sole purpose of [fatiguing]
them with his measures;
[?], he has refused for a long space of time time after such Dissolutions*Mr. Adams to cause others to be elected,
whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to
the people at large for their exercise, the state remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without &, convulsions within:
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose
obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others
to encourage their migrations hither; & raising the conditions of new ap-
propriations of lands:
he has [suffered] the administration of justice [totally to cease in some of these
colonies] states refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:
he has made [our]+Dr. Franklin judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices,
and the amount & payment of their salaries:
he has erected a multitude of new offices [by a self-assumed power,] & sent hi-
-ther swarms of officers to harrass our people & eat out their substance:
he has kept among us in times of peace [?] standing armies [& ships of war without our the consent of our [?] legislatures :
he has affected to render the military, independent of & superior to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu-
-tions and unacknoleged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended acts
of legislation, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
for protecting them by a mock-trial from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
for imposing taxes on us without our consent;
for depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government,
and enlarging it’s boundaries so as to render it at once an example & fit instrument for introducing the same [?]
[?] to these Colonies states
for taking away our charters, Dr. Franklin abolishing our most important valuable Laws & altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
for suspending our own legislatures & declaring themselves invested with power to
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever:
he has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection & waging war against us [withdrawing his governors, & declaring us out
of his allegiance & protection:]
he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns & destroyed the
lives of our people:
he is at this time transporting large armies of Scotch and other foreign mercenaries to compleat
the works of death, desolation & tyranny, already begun with circumstances
of cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation:
{x he has [?] excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has}
he has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian
savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of
all ages, sexes, & conditions [of existence:]
[he has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow-citizens, with the
allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our property:
{x he has constrained others full [?] [?] on the high seas to bear arms against their country, & to de-
stroy & be destroyed, by their brethren [?] they love, to become the executioners of their friends & brethren
or to fall themselves by their hands}
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sa-
-cred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never of-
fended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemi-
-sphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this
piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the
Christian king of Great Britain, determined to keep open a market
where MEN should be bought & sold. he has prostituted his negative
for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this
execrable commerce: determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold:: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact
of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms
among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them,
by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying
off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes
which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.]
in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble
terms; our repeated petitions have been answered Dr. Franklin only by repeated injuries. a prince
whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit
to be the ruler of of a free people [who mean to be free. future ages will scarce believe
that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of twelve years
only, on so many acts of tyranny without a mask to lay build a foundation so broad & undisguised, for tyranny over a people fostered & fixed in principles
of liberty. freedom.]
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. we have
warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarranted a juris-
-diction over [these our states]us, we have reminded them of the circumstances of
our emigration & settlement here, [no one of which could warrant so strange a
pretension: that these were effected at the expence of our own blood & treasure,
unassisted by the wealth or strength of Great Britain: that in constituting
indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby
laying a foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that submission to their
parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be
credited: and] we have appealed to their native justice & magnamity, & we have [?] them , [as well as to] the ties
of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which [were likely to] would inevitably interrupt
our connection & correspondence & connection. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice &
of consanguinity, We must therefore [& when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of
their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they
have by their free election re-established them in power. at this very time too they
are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common
blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to invade & deluge us in blood. Dr. Franklindestroy us. these facts
have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to re-
-nounce for ever these unfeeling brethren. we must endeavor to forget our former
love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war,
in peace friends. we might have been a free & a great people together; but a commu-
nication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they
will have it: the road to glory & happiness & to glory is open to us too; we will climb mount tread it in
& separately state apart from them, and] We must [bear] acquiesce in the necessity which prodenounces our ever-
-lasting Adieu! [eternal] separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind enemies in war, in peace friends.
We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Con-
gress assembled appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our contentions do, in the name & by the authority of the good people of these [states,] colonies
reject and renounce all allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain {a different phraseology instead}
& all others who may hereafter claim by through, or under them; we utterly
dissolve & break off all political connection which may have heretofore have sub-
-sisted between us & the people or parliament of Great Britain; and finally
we do assert and declare these colonies to be free and independant states,
and that as free & independant states they shall hereafter have full power to levy
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, & to do all other
acts and things which independant states may of right do. And for the
support of this declaration] we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our
fortunes, & our sacred honour.
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- +Dr. Franklin
- *Mr. Adams
- Dr. Franklin