John Hancock, manuscript announcing the adoption of the Declaration of Independence
photo: sotheby’s
2 pages (12 ⅝ x 8 in.; 322 x 204 mm) on the first leaf of a bifolium, body of the letter in a secretarial hand (likely Jacob Rust), Philadelphia, 6 July 1776, salutation reads "Gentlemen,” and address direction at end of reads “Honl. Convention of [obscured]”; silked, stained, abraded in spots, some fold separations and marginal chips, separated from integral blank at central fold.
President of Congress John Hancock announces the adoption of the Declaration of Independence: “the Congress have judged it necessary to dissolve all Connection between Great Britain, and the American Colonies; and to declare them free and independent States. …”
The text of the Declaration of Independence—which announced and justified America’s resolution of separation from Great Britain—was first printed on the evening of 4 July 1776, by John Dunlap. But when the Continental Congress convened for session in May of that year, the issuance of such a declaration was far from a foregone conclusion. A coalition of delegates from Mid-Atlantic states, led by Pennsylvania's John Dickinson, advocated a cautious approach towards independence and may even have harbored hopes for an equitable reconciliation with Britain.
photo: sotheby’s
The first step towards the Declaration was Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of 7 June, “that these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” This provoked sharp debate in the chamber, with South Carolinian Edward Rutledge confiding to John Jay that “The Sensible part of the House opposed the Motion. ... They saw no Wisdom in a Declaration of Independence nor any other Purpose to be answer’d by it, but placing ourselves in the Power of those with whom we mean to treat. ...” But firebrands like John Adams carried the day and on 11 June 1776 the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five members to draft a declaration endorsing Lee's resolution. Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York formed the committee.
photo: sotheby’s
Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration, in recognition of his (in John Adams's words) “peculiar felicity of expression.” His extensively reworked Rough Draft, as it is commonly known, is preserved in the Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress. In addition to Lee’s resolution, Jefferson drew heavily on two other fundamental sources for his text: George Mason’s bill of rights, adopted by Virginia on 12 June 1776, and his own draft of a proposed constitution for Virginia. Jefferson felt great satisfaction for the rest of his life in having been privileged to serve as chief author of this greatest of American documents. Shortly before his death, Jefferson wrote to Richard Henry Lee, responding to the remarks of John Adams and others that the Declaration only stated what everyone at the time believed. He had been concerned, he wrote, “not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent ... it was intended to be an expression of the American mind.”
As is evident from their annotations on the Rough Draft, Adams and Franklin read and commented on Jefferson's version, making relatively small changes. There is no direct evidence of revision from the hands of Sherman and Livingston. A fair copy (now lost), incorporating these changes, was submitted to the full body of the Continental Congress, which debated it for three days before approving it on 4 July 1776.
