The most famous of the deletions is a long paragraph that he writes–if people remember the structure of the Declaration, it’s basically kind of a divorce petition, right? There’s the preamble, which everyone has heard-”When in the course of human events,” which lays out the cause-and then there’s a long section that is rarely read anymore justifying, and laying all the blame for the problems on the king. So, in terms of the language of the original draft, where do we see the differences between the draft and the final version that we’re all familiar with? ![]() Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence. So, it’s interesting to compare what Jefferson originally wrote and what Congress decided they wanted to say. Jefferson presented his draft to them on June 28 and they debated it, really line by line, and made substantial changes, mostly deletion. That is, it’s a product of a committee, in fact, Congress meeting as a committee of the whole considered it. ![]() ![]() Could you talk about that draft, the background of that draft, and how it was different?Įveryone knows that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but what isn’t remembered as well is that what we read, when you go to the National Archives or when you see it in a textbook, what we read is not entirely what Jefferson wrote. The Declaration of Independence is arguably one of the most recognizable and oft-quoted documents in American History-”life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and so forth-but what might not be so recognizable is the first version of the Declaration that Thomas Jefferson wrote.
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