Today is Independence Day, celebrating the day in 1776 that Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the United States officially broke from the rule of England.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in a second-floor room on Market Street in Philadelphia, on a little lap desk that he had designed himself. Some members of the Continental Congress had hoped that Benjamin Franklin would write the document, but Franklin declined. John Adams was also considered a possible writer of the document, but Adams gave the assignment to Jefferson because he said, "You can write ten times better than I can."
Jefferson finished the first draft after a few days work and sent it to Franklin on the morning of June 21, asking for suggestions. Franklin made just a few changes. In the most famous passage, Jefferson had written, "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable." Franklin changed it to, "We hold these truths to be self-evident."
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Independence Day
From the Writer's Almanac:
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1 comment:
Sitting around a table trying to write and edit as a group is one of the most gratifying and difficult experiences for me. I did it just this past week as 6 of us tried to draft a mock letter to the editor as an exercise during a training session.
Historical accounts of the process of drafting of the Declaration of Independence are fascinating. I would have been happy to be a fly on the wall and listen to Franklin and Jefferson hash this out!
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