Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence
Exhibit Table of Contents
Reconstructing the Draft
One of the greatest challenges in reconstructing the early draft and early changes is that Jefferson marked everything on one set of manuscript pages, which he labeled the “original Rough draught.” On top of the base text in his handwriting, which was already reworked from earlier notes and partial drafts, only some of which have survived (see Earlier Notes and Partial Drafts in Additional Reading, below), are a number of changes also in his handwriting. Some of those may have been alterations Jefferson made before he showed the draft to anyone else, or perhaps in an early phase when he and John Adams looked at it. Other changes must reflect the committee members’ review, but apart from those marked by Adams and Benjamin Franklin they are in Jefferson’s handwriting, and he did not mark down who suggested them. To compound the challenges, if Jefferson recopied the draft before the committee presented it to Congress on June 28, that copy is no longer extant. He returned to his manuscript pages again after Congress made further changes, and he also marked those on his “original Rough draught.” The drafting and revisions timeline is discussed at length on the Drafting the Declaration of Independence entry page.
We can uncover some of the stages of composition by looking at when copies of the draft were made and noting what amendments to the text had been made prior to each copy. A copy of the draft made by Adams serves as an important benchmark, as it seems to show the text before most of the committee members reviewed it. With the exception of one change made by Adams on the draft, his copy does not include any other changes that Jefferson identified as having been made by someone other than himself. For later changes, Jefferson provided clues by applying marginal comments identifying the handwriting of inserted text, which allows us to more clearly identify the stage at which those changes were made. Finally, shortly after Congress adopted the Declaration, Jefferson made copies of the committee’s draft to send to several friends, which lay out the draft as it stood when the committee submitted it to Congress, before Congress substantially revised the document.
Past editors of Jefferson’s papers employed different techniques to show the declaration’s development and the committee’s revisions to the draft. Some used the root text before any revisions were made and added extensive annotation to explain later changes. Others printed the draft as it was submitted to Congress, using annotation to describe the changes that had been made up to that point. One edition printed three stages of revision as three separate, side-by-side columns for comparison. Others simply included an image of the chaotic draft without attempting to transcribe or break down the contents (see Scholarly Editions in Additional Reading, below).
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, in the series’ first published volume, printed the underlying “original Rough draught” with footnotes showing changes made before Adams made his copy. In a different part of the same volume, the Papers printed the draft as submitted to Congress, with the changes made by the committee marked, and also printed the final Declaration of Independence. While a dedicated researcher could piece together the development of the draft, it is difficult to get a clear narrative of the draft’s development through print sources alone.
For this exhibit, we separated stages of revision into three tabs, so changes to the text can be viewed side by side with zoom-capable images of the manuscript.
The first tab shows the base text before any alterations were made. This is completely in Jefferson’s hand and strips out changes and corrections that were later marked on the page.
The second tab shows changes marked before Adams made his copy. These might be early revisions Jefferson made to his own work or revisions made in early consultations with committee members.
The third tab shows the remaining revisions marked on the document prior to its submission to Congress. To ascertain this stage, we examined three copies that Jefferson sent to friends in the days shortly after July 4, in which he reconstructed the draft that the committee had laid before Congress. We also consulted another copy of the draft that Jefferson transcribed into his Notes of Proceedings of the Continental Congress, which he compiled sometime between August 1776 and August 1783. When possible, we have identified the committee member who contributed each revision.
Some additional markings are visible on the manuscript. In places, Jefferson bracketed text that was removed or changed by Congress (see Committee Draft to Congress for these changes). He added marks that look like apostrophes and quotation marks to represent pauses and other cues for reading the document aloud, which you can read more about at the editorial note for Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address.
Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence
On the left below are images of the manuscript images of Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence. Click the arrows to page through the images (pages 1 through 4). Move your cursor over the image to use a magnifier and view the text in greater detail.
Alongside manuscript page images, there is a transcription box with three tabs at the top, labeled “First Version,” “Early Edits,” and “Committee Edits.” Each displays the transcription of the full document (including all four manuscript pages) at a different stage of revision. These drafts include edits marked in the handwriting of different individuals. Most edits were made in Jefferson’s hand. If conclusively made by a committee member other than Jefferson, the changes are distinguished by a unique text color (see key below) and identified in an attached note.
To view the different drafts, select a new tab. You will note that the active tab is highlighted in red. To learn more about changes to the draft, click on the highlighted links in the transcription. Each link leads to a pop-up note with details about what changes were made to the text.
The pop-up notes describe changes in wording, phrasing, and order. Changes in capitalization and punctuation have not been individually noted. Words underlined in the text are presented in italics.
Handwriting Key
General edits: most editorial marks, which appear to be in Jefferson’s hand. This also includes canceled text
John Adams: revisions explicitly identified (through margin notes by Jefferson) to be in Adams’s hand
Benjamin Franklin: revisions explicitly identified (through margin notes by Jefferson) to be in Franklin’s hand
Edits marked by Adams and Franklin will also be labeled in pop-up notes attached to each revision
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Jefferson’s First Full Version
A Declaration of the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant 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 change.
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become 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 reduce them to arbitrary power, 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 their former systems of government. the history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have 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.
[PAGE 2]
he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public 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 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, a right inestimable to them, & formidable to tyrants alone:
he has dissolved Representative houses repeatedly & continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people:
he has refused for a long space of time 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 appropriations of lands:
he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:
he has made our judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and amount of their salaries:
he has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed power, & sent hither 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:
he has affected to render the military, independant of & superior to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknoleged by our laws; giving his assent to their 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 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 of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
[PAGE 3]
for taking away our charters, & 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, 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 foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:
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 subjects, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our property:
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s 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. 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: 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 by repeated injury. a prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people who mean to be free. future ages will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of 12 years only, on so many acts of tyranny without a mask, over a people fostered & fixed in principles of liberty.
[PAGE 4]
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 a jurisdiction over these our states. 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 the 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 appealed to their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to interrupt our correspondence & connection. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, & 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. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce 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 communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it: the road to glory & happiness is open to us too; we will climb it in a separate state, and acquiesce in the necessity which pronounces our everlasting Adieu!
We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled do, in the name & by authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce all allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve & break off all political connection which may have heretofore subsisted 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 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.
Early Edits to the Draft
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 people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant 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 change.
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become 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 reduce them under absolute power, 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 their former systems of government. the history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have 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.
[PAGE 2]
he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public 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 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:
he has dissolved Representative houses repeatedly & continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people:
he has refused for a long space of time after such Dissolutions 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 appropriations of lands:
he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:
he has made our judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and amount of their salaries:
he has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed power, & sent hither 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:
he has affected to render the military, independant of & superior to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknoleged by our laws; giving his assent to their 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 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 of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:
[PAGE 3]
for taking away our charters, & 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, 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 foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:
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:
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s 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. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. 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 by repeated injury. a prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a 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, over a people fostered & fixed in principles of liberty.
[PAGE 4]
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 a jurisdiction over these our states. 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 the 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 appealed to their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to interrupt our correspondence & connection. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, & 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. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce 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 communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it: the road to happiness & to glory is open to us too; we will climb it apart from them, and acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our eternal separation!
We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled do, in the name & by authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce all allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve & break off all political connection which may have heretofore subsisted 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 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.
Editing with Members of the Committee
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 one people to dissolve the political bands which connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the 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 separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with inherent & inalienable rights; that, among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government 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 reduce them 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 their former systems of government. the history of the present King of Great Britain, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which appears no solitary fact to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, but all have 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.
[PAGE 2]
he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public 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 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:
he has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, unco[mfortable, and distan]t [from] the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatigui[ng them into compliance] with his measures,
he has dissolved Representative houses repeatedly & continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people:
he has refused for a long time after such Dissolutions 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 appropriations of lands:
he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these states, refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:
he has made our 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 hither 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 the consent of our legislatures:
he has affected to render the military, independant of & superior to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknoleged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended 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 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 neighbouring 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 absolute rule into these states;
[PAGE 3]
for taking away our charters, abolishing our most 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, 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 foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:
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:
he has constrained others, taken captives on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s 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. 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: 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 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 a 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, to build a foundation, so broad & undisguised for tyranny over a people fostered & fixed in principles of liberty & freedom.
[PAGE 4]
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 a jurisdiction over these our states. 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 the 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 appealed to their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to interrupt our connection & correspondence. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, & 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 & destroy us. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce 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 communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it: the road to happiness and to glory is open to us too; we will tread it apart from them, and acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our eternal separation!
We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled do, in the name & by authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce all allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve all political connection which may heretofore have subsisted 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 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.
Source: Draft in the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress. Endorsed by Jefferson: “Independance. Declaration of original Rough draught.”
Here “of” was changed to “by.”
Here “sacred & undeniable” was changed to “self-evident.” It has often been attributed to Franklin, but it is in Jefferson’s handwriting (see Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:427-8).
Before “rights, “in” was deleted.
Here the word “subject” was changed to “reduce”; this was a correction made on the same line.
Here “to arbitrary” was changed to “under absolute.”
Here the phrase “in the legislature” was interlined after the word “representation.”
Here the word “alone” was changed to read “only,” overwriting the substituted word.
The phrase “he has dissolved” was struck out at the beginning of this line.
In Adams’s hand, “after such Dissolutions” was added after “space of time.”
Here “subjects” was changed to “citizens.”
The words “determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold” were moved from their original location following “Christian king of Great Britain.”
Here the figure “12” was changed to the word “twelve.”
Here “glory & happiness” was changed to “happiness & to glory.”
Here “in a separate state” was first changed to “separately,” which was then changed to “apart from them.”
Here “pronounces” was changed to “denounces.”
Here “everlasting Adieu” was changed to “eternal separation.”
Here “a” was changed to “one.”
Here “advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to” was changed to “dissolve the political bands which connected them with another, and to.”
Here “equal and independant” was changed to “separate and equal.”
Here “the change” was changed to “the separation.”
After “equal,” “& independent” was marked out.
Here “from that equal creation they derive rights” was changed to “that they are endowed by their creator with.”
With brackets and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
Here “rights; that” was inserted after “inalienable.”
Here “which” was changed to “these.”
After “are,” “the preservation of” was marked out.
After “life,” “&” was marked out.
Here “ends” was changed to “rights.”
With brackets and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
In Adams’s hand, here “his” was changed to “the.”
In Adams’s hand, here “majesty” was changed to “King of Great Britain.”
With brackets and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
Here “no one fact stands single or solitary” was changed to “appears no solitary fact.”
Here “all of which” was changed to “but all.”
With brackets and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With cancellation and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a later change by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
By attaching a flap of paper to the left margin, Jefferson here inserted “he has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, unco[mfortable, and distan]t [from] the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatigui[ng them into compliance] with his measures.” The edge of the flap was torn, and the text in brackets was restored from later drafts.
The words “space of time” were struck out, and in Jefferson’s hand, “time” was prefixed to Adams’s earlier interlineation (see Tab 1: Early Edits).
The word “colonies” was changed to “states.”
In Franklin’s hand, here the word “the” was interlined before the word “amount.”
In Franklin’s hand, here the phrase “& payment” was interlined after the word “amount.”
After the word “peace,” “without our Consent” was inserted with a caret and then struck out.
After “war,” “without our consent” was inserted; “our” was changed to “the” and “of our legislatures” added after “consent.”
Here “pretended acts” was changed to “acts of pretended.”
Here the word “which” was interlined before the word “they.”
After “us,” Jefferson marked an phrase later inserted by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
The paragraph beginning “for abolishing” was inserted beneath the line beginning “for transporting.”
In Franklin’s hand, here “abolishing our most important Laws” was added, and then “important” was changed to “valuable.”
After “of,” “Scotch and other” was inserted, likely marking words later added by Congress but not retained in the final version of the Declaration. See Committee Draft to Congress and Papers, 1:319, 328n.
With several inserted words after “perfidy,” Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With an interlined phrase, Jefferson here marked where a paragraph was moved in a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With an interlined phrase above “endeavoured”, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
The phrase beginning with “he has constrained” was interlined between the lines beginning with “he has incited” and “he has waged cruel war.”
Here “falling into his hands,” was changed to “taken captives.”
After “country,” the phrase “& to destroy & be destroyed by [the brethren whom] they love” was added and then marked out.
In an earlier edit, the phrase “determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold” was moved to after “commerce”; here it was restored to the original location after “Great Britain.”
In Franklin’s hand, here the word “only” was added.
Here “injury” was changed to “injuries.”
Before “people,” Jefferson marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
Here the phrase “on so many acts of tyranny without a mask” was replaced by “to build a foundation, so broad & undisguised, for tyranny.”
Here “liberty” was changed to “freedom.”
With an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With brackets and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With brackets and a few inserted words, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
Here “correspondence & connection” was changed to “connection & correspondence.”
With brackets and a few inserted words, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
In Franklin’s hand, here the phrase “deluge us in blood” was changed to “destroy us.”
The word “must” was written above “will,” but was later crossed out.
Here the word “climb” was replaced by “tread,” but the version the Committee submitted to Congress kept “climb.” See the Committee’s Draft for Congress.
Here, “eternal” was marked as canceled, showing a change later made by Congress. See the Committee’s Draft for Congress.
With several inserted words after “separation,” Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With several inserted words after “assembled,” Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
With brackets and an inserted word, Jefferson here marked a change later made by the Continental Congress. See the Committee’s Draft to Congress.
The phrase “& break off” was canceled after “dissolve.”
Here “have heretofore” was changed to “heretofore have.”
After “they,” the words “shall hereafter” were canceled.
Here “full” was inserted before “power.”
Here “full” was inserted before “power.”
Additional Reading
Earlier Notes and Partial Drafts:
Composition Draft of That Part of the Declaration of Independence containing the Charges against the Crown, 11 June–4 July 1776 , in Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:417-20, developed from an earlier version of notes on the Virginia Constitution, [before June 1776], in Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:337-47. Manuscript in the Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress.
Fragment of the Composition Draft of the Declaration of Independence, [before 29 July 1776], in the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:420-3. Manuscripts in the Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress.
Copies of Drafts:
John Adams’s copy of the Declaration of Independence, held at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Jefferson’s Copies of the Committee Draft Made after the Declaration’s Adoption by Congress:
“Cassius F. Lee Copy.” In Jefferson’s hand, likely made for George Wythe, but possibly for Edmund Pendleton, Philip Mazzei, or John Page. Manuscript in the Thomas Addis Emmet Collection at the New York Public Library.
Richard Henry Lee Copy. In Jefferson’s hand, made for Lee. Manuscript in the Richard Henry Lee Papers at the American Philosophical Society.
“Washburn Copy.” In Jefferson’s hand, likely made for Edmund Pendleton or John Page. Manuscript in the Jefferson Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Scholarly Editions:
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1:315-20, 413-33.
Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 10 vols. (New York, 1892-99), 2:42-58.
John H. Hazelton, The Declaration of Independence: Its History (New York, 1906), 306-42.
Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence. A Study in the History of Political Ideas (New York, 1922 and 1942), 135-84.
Julian P. Boyd, The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text (Washington, D.C., 1943; repr. Princeton, 1945).
Gawalt, Gerard W., ed., Julian P. Boyd, The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text (Washington, 1999). Reprint of Boyd’s 1945 edition with additional introductory text and updated images.