How was the Declaration of Independence written?

Question

Basically that Question. Obviously for American History.

Answer 1

With quill pen & ink & paper. The Second Continental Congress, a body called into being to deal with the colonies rebellion against Great Britain, delegated the task of writing up a document stating the colonies grievances and what they resolved to do, assigning this task to a New Englander, John Adams, a Pennsylvanian, Ben Franklin and a Virginian, a Southerner, Thomas Jefferson - - - each of whom had a reputation as a gifted writer.

Though he felt quite qualified to write such a document John Adams of Massachusetts felt it best if Thomas Jefferson handled most of the chore, an idea accepted by Benjamin Franklin, both men aware of how eloquently Thomas Jefferson had written about his own colonies rights. After three weeks of work, with Jefferson writing, Adams & Franklin 'editing,' and offering suggestions, a truly magnifiient document was created, one that succintly stated the colonies demand and clearly demonstrated that the colonies ought to be independent.

Peace...

Answer 2

It was ratified (approved by the continental congress) on July 4, 1776. Then an official draft was copied by a proffesional handwriter and this draft was finally signed by 56 delegates on August 2nd.

Answer 3

I'll assuming you are NOT asking about the physical tools used to write and publish it! but rather about how it came about that it was written at all AND that it took to shape it did, and perhaps what specific role Jefferson played in all this. I'll subdivide that a bit... hope that makes it easier.


1) First, WHY was any Declaration written at all?

a) The Declaration was, in one sense, an afterthought. The MAIN thing Congress was doing was getting ready to vote on a resolution offered by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia (at the request of the Virginia House of Burgesses),

"that these states are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. . . "

But the delegates of some of the colonies were hesitant about declaring independence at this time, wanting to try to negotiate a bit longer. It was thought that writing a formal declaration would help convince (and give time enough, to convince) those delegations

b) To make a public, open defense/explanation to the whole WORLD, to show that what they were doing was justified. (This is specifically stated in the first paragraph of the Declaration.)

c) "That was how it was done" -- the form of the Declaration is largely modeled on earlier English documents, esp. the "English Bill of Rights, 1689" which had likewise been a formal statement listing the abuses of a king (James II) when Parliament essentially deposed him and replaced him with William and Mary. Unlike earlier documents from Congress --petitions of grievance seeking to resolve the issues between them (and listing their complaints against PARLIAMENT, not the King) -- this was a form which specifically cited the KING's behavior and declared their rejection of his rule.

For that matter, the Declaration by Congress was actually following the lead of several of the colonies which had already issued their own.


**Note that this 3rd point explains much of the "technique" or patterning of the document. Jefferson did NOT come up with it on his own, but borrowed freely from forms like the English Bill of Rights AND the various Declarations many of the colonies had already written.



2) Second, once the decision was made to write such a document, what do we know about the SPECIFIC structure and content of this document? How did it come to take this specific shape?

From Question 1 it is clear that it was not Jefferson's own idea, and that at least some of the content and structure was borrowed from or parallel to that in OTHER Declarations, etc.

Also, note that though Jefferson wrote MOST of it, not only did he borrow from other documents, but there are many things in the document that other members of Congress played a part in. The committee charged with writing it may very well have outlined the basic structure and contents it might have, though they freed him to write the draft himself. They also suggested changes, esp. John Adams and Ben Franklin (some of which we have in their own hand). And then there were changes that Congress as a whole made to the document before accepting it (including omitting the grievance concerning slavery, which South Carolina and Georgia vehemently objected to, and a couple --not all!-- of the specific references to God [Creator, Providence]).


If you want to trace something of the changes the document went through -

Here seems to be the closest we can get to Jefferson's ORIGINAL text --
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1776-1800/independence/doitj.htm

Compare these with images of the manuscript as it seems to have come from the Committee, with some changes. Many of these are in Jefferson's hand, some look like they might be written in my John Adams -- though even for the changes Jefferson himself wrote it is unclear whether they were his own idea, of the suggestion of another (likely Franklin or Adams).
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/congress.htm

Here is a copy of the text, showing Congressional changes from the Committee version.
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/congress.htm


Also, Paula Maier's book *American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence* includes an excellent discussion of the writing process, and of the various sets of "grievances" that form the central part of the document.



3) Finally, specifically, why did Jefferson draft it? Again, as just noted, others did play a role in some specific details, perhaps in ways (e.g., overall structure decisions) that we don't know about.

But still the decisions about MOST of the wording were left to Jefferson who drafted the document. . . so why did HE end up with this job?

Years later John Adams offered a humorous explanation that, while likely not exactly correct, has some merit to it:

"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.'*
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jefferson.htm
(see his fuller account there)

There is some substance to these entertaining & oft-quoted reasons (humorously expressed in the song "But, Mr Adams" from the Broadway musical "1776" - http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/1776originalcastrecording/butmradams.htm)

But Jefferson's recollection was a bit different, and the following is probably a better explanation:

a) The first decision was for Jefferson to be chair of the committee tasked with drafting the declaration. THAT choice goes a long way towards explaining why he was the writer

Jefferson was chosen AS a Virginian, since Virginia's lead was considered very important to the endeavor

The New England colonies strongly supported independence, but others tended to thing them too extreme. The support of Virginia (the largest state) was deemed critical in getting other colonies (esp. the lukewarm Middle colonies) to join the effort. In keeping with this, Richard Henry Lee had gone to Virginia to seek a resolution for independence and returned to place it before the Congress.

Since it was his own resolution, legislative courtesy would ordinarily call for Lee to be asked to chair the committee chosen to draft the declaration which was to outline the reasons for that resolution. But when Lee asked to return home to his sick family the evening before the committee was selected, it was decided to appoint a fellow Virginian to chair the committee (though Adams's letter disputes this). In that case, it may have been something of an accident that Jefferson was on the committee to begin with.
http://www.citizensoldier.org/decdrafters.html
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/revwar/book/chap4.html

b) Once asked to chair the committee, however, it was probably assumed that he would take the lead in drafting the document. That was the normal procedure (and the fact that Adams was also busy chairing another a committee would re-enforce it).

c) His known ability with the pen probably contributed to his choice for the committee AND then to draft the document. But it should not be forgotten that Adams and Franklin were capable writers themselves. (The other two members of the committee would not be likely candidates. Robert Livingston [NY] was not completely in agreement with the effort, and Roger Sherman [CT] was not a gifted writer.)

Answer 4

By ink bottle and a feather, lol

Answer 5

Quill pen?