The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
DECLARATON OF INDEPENDENCE
I prepared a draught of the declaration committed to us. It was too
strong for Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope of reconciliation
with the mother country, and was unwilling it should be lessened by
offensive statements. He was so honest a man, and so able a one, that
he was greatly indulged even by those who could not feel his scruples.
We therefore requested him to take the paper, and put it into a form
he could approve. He did so, preparing an entire new statement, and
preserving of the former only the last four paragraphs and half of the
preceding one. We approved and reported it to Congress, who accepted
it. Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr. Dickinson,
and of their great desire not to go too fast for any respectable part
of our body, in permitting him to draw their second petition to the
King according to his own ideas, and passing it with scarcely any
amendment. The disgust against this humility was general; and Mr.
Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only circumstance which
reconciled them to it.
On the 15th of May, 1776, the convention of Virginia instructed their
delegates in Congress, to propose to that body to declare the colonies
independent of Great Britain.
It appearing in the course of
debates, that the colonies of
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South
Carolina were not yet matured for falling from the parent stem, but
that they were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most
prudent to wait a while for them, and to postpone the final decision
to July 1st; but, that this might occasion as little delay as
possible, a committee was appointed to prepare a Declaration of
Independence. The committee were John Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger
Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and myself. Committees were also
appointed, at the same time, to prepare a plan of confederation for
the colonies, and to state the terms proper to be proposed for foreign
alliance. The committee for drawing the Declaration of Independence,
desired me to do it. It was accordingly done, and being approved by
them, I reported it to the House on Friday, the 28th of June, when it
was read, and ordered to lie on the table. On Monday, the 1st of July,
the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole.
The
pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms
with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages
which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest
they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating the
enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to
South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the
importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to
continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little
tender under those censures; for though their people had very few
slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of
them to others. The debates, having taken up the greater parts of the
2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, were, on the evening of the last,
closed; the Declaration was reported by the committee, agreed to by
the House, and signed by every member present, except Mr. Dickinson.
from Notes for an Autobiography, 6 January 1821
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