The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Correspondence and Miscellaneous Writings 1760–1774 Continued
• 1771 - to Thomas Adams 1
• To James Ogilvie 1
• “ Inscription For an African Slave ” 1
• Agreement With John Randolph 2
• To Inglis and Long, Merchants At Portsmouth 1
• To Thomas Adams 1
• To Robert Skipwith
• Argument In Godwin Et Al. Vs. Lunan 1
• 1772 - to Messrs. Inglis and Long, Merchants At Portsmouth 1
• 1773 - to Chas. Mcpherson 1
• To William Fleming 1
• Advertisement In “virginia Gazette”
• Advertisement In “virginia Gazette”
• Advertisement In “virginia Gazette”
• 1774 - Notice of Fast 1
• Resolution of Albemarle County 2
• Proposed Arms For the United States 1
• A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Set Forth In Some Resolutions
• “ Defects In the Association ” 1
• To Archibald Cary and Benjamin Harrison
• 1775 - Motion In Convention of Virginia 1
• Draft of a Resolution of the Virginia Convention 1
• To Dr. William Small 1
• Address to Governor Dunmore From the House of Burgesses 1
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To Francis Eppes 1
• Drafts of Declaration On Taking Up Arms 1
• First Draft
• Second Draft
• Draft of Report On Lord North’s Motion 2
• To John Randolph 1
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To John Page 1
• To Francis Eppes 2
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To John Randolph 2
• Declaration Concerning Ethan Allen 1
• To John Page 1
• Report to Congress On Congress Committee 1
• 1776 - to Thomas Nelson 1
• Report of Committee On Canadian Affairs 1
• Proposed Constitution For Virginia 1
• First Draft
• Fair Copy
• Report On Cedars Cartel 1
• Report On Canadian Affairs 1
• To William Fleming 1
• Declaration of Independence 1
• First Draft
• Reported Draft
• Engrossed Copy
• To Richard Henry Lee 1
• To George Wythe 1
• Notes of Rules For Continental Congress. 1
• To Edmund Pendleton 2
• Resolution For Rotation of Members of Continental Congress 1
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To the Pennsylvania Convention 1
• Notes On Virginia-pennsylvania Boundary
• To the Governor of Virginia 1 (patrick Henry)
• To Col. Fielding Lewis
• To John Page 2
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To John Page 1
• To Francis Eppes 1
• To — 1
• To John Page 1
• Resolution to Encourage Desertions of Hessian Officers 1
• Resolutions On Peace Propositions 1
• To the President of the Continental Congress 1 (john Hancock)
• Notes On Religion 1
• Draft of Bill to Abolish Entails. 1
• Amendments to Bill to Abolish Entails 1
• Draft of a Bill to Remove Seat of Government 1
• Draft of a Bill For Raising Six Additional Battalions of Infantry On the Continental Establishment 1
• Draft of a Bill Establishing County Courts 1
• Draft of a Bill For Altering Rates of Copper Coin 1
• Report On Upshur 2
• A Bill For the Trial of Offences Committed Out of This Commonwealth.
• Draft of a Bill For Suspending Executions For Debt 1
• 1777 - Draft of a Bill For Providing Against Invasions and Insurrections 1
• Draft of a Bill For Regulating the Appointment of Delegates to General Congress 1
• To John Adams 1
• To Benjamin Franklin 1
• To John Adams
• First Report of Conference Committee 1
• 1778 - Second Report of Conference Committee
• Draft of a Bill Giving Certain Powers to the Executive 1
• Draft of Bill Designating Places For Holding Courts of Chancery and General Court 1
• A Bill Granting Free Pardon to Certain Offenders 1
• A Bill For the Speedy Recovery of Debts Due the United States 1
• Draft of a Bill For Providing a Supply For the Public Exigencies 1
• A Bill to Amend an Act Intitled “an Act For Raising a Supply of Money For Public Exigencies” 1
• Draft of Bill of Attainder Against Josiah Philips 1
• To Richard Henry Lee 1
• To —
• Resolutions Concerning Peace With England 1
• To Rev. Samuel Henley 1
• To David Rittenhouse 1
• A Bill For Giving the Members of the Assembly an Adequate Allowance 1
• 1779 - to George Wythe
• To the Governor of Virginia. (patrick Henry)
• To Richard Henry Lee 1
• To Gabriel Jones 1
• A Bill Concerning Escheats and Forfeitures From British Subjects 2
• Speech to General Assembly 1
• To John Page 1
• To William Fleming 1
• To Theodorick Bland, Jr. 1
• To Richard Henry Lee 1
• To Theodorick Bland, Jr. 1
• Report of the Revisors
• A Bill For Withholding British Property (chapter Xxxvi 1 )
• A Bill Concerning Slaves (chapter Li 1 )
• A Bill For Proportioning Crimes and Punishments (chapter Lxiv 1 )
• A Bill For the More General Diffusion of Knowledge (chapter Lxxix)
• A Bill For the Amending the Constitution of the College of William and Mary (chapter Lxxx)
• A Bill For Establishing a Public Library (chapter Lxxxi)
• A Bill For Establishing Religious Freedom 1 (chapter Lxxxii)
• To General Washington
• To the President of Congress (john Jay)
• Proclamation Concerning Escheats
• To General Baron De Riedesel 1
• To General Washington
• To the Governor of Canada (sir Guy Carleton)
• To Col. William Fleming 1
• To the County Lieutenant of Hampshire 1
• To the President of Congress (john Jay)
• To General Washington
• To General Washington
• To General Washington
• To Colonel George Mathews 1
• To the Speaker of the House of Delegates (benjamin Harrison)
• To the Speaker of the House of Delegates (benjamin Harrison)
• To the Speaker of the House of Delegates (benjamin Harrison)
• To the French Minister 1 ( Chevalier De La Luzerne )
• To the Governor of North Carolina 1 ( Richard Caswell )
• To the President of Congress (samuel Huntington)
• To General Washington
• Proclamation Laying Embargo
• To the President of Congress (samuel Huntington)
• To General Washington
• To the Speaker of the House of Delegates (benjamin Harrison)
• To the President of Congress (samuel Huntington)

drafts of declaration on taking up arms1

[July 6, 1775.]

first draft

The large advances strides of late taken by the legislature of Great Britain towards establishing in over these colonies their absolute rule, and the hardiness of their present attempt to effect by force of arms what by law or right they could never effect, renders it necessary for us also to shift change the ground of opposition and to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. And as it behoves those who are called to this great decision to be assured that their cause is approved before supreme reason, so is it of great avail that its justice be made known to the world whose prayers cannot be wanting intercessions affections will ever be favorable to a people take part with those encountring oppression. Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Gr. Britn harassed having there vainly long endeavored to bear up against the evils of misrule, left their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil & religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, with to the loss ruin of their fortune, with the relinquishment of everything quiet & comfortable in life, they effected settlements in the inhospitable wilds of America; they there established civil societies under with various forms of constitution, but possessing all, what is inherent in all, the full & perfect powers of legislation. To continue their connection with the those friends whom they had left & loved but they arranged themselves by charters of compact under the same one common king who became the thro’ whom who thus became the link uniting of union between the several union was ensured to them multiplied parts of the empire. Some occasional assumptions of power by the parl. of Gr. Brit. however foreign & unknown to unacknowledged by the constitutions we had formed of our governments were finally acquiesced in thro’ the warmth of affection. Proceeding thus in the fullness of mutual harmony & confidence both parts of the empire encreased in population and wealth with a rapidity unknown in the history of man. The various soils political institutions of America, its various climes soils & climates opening sure certain resource to the unfortunate & to the enterprising of all every countrys where and ensured to them the acquisition and full possession of property. Great Britain too acquired a lustre & a weight in the political system among the powers of the world earth which it is thought her internal resources could never have given her. To the a communication of the wealth & the power of the several parts of the whole every part of the empire we may surely ascribe in some measure surely ascribe the illustrious character she sustained thro’ her last European war and its successful event. At the close of that war however Gr. Britain having subdued all her foes she took up the unfortunate idea of subduing her friends also. Her parliament then for the first time asserted a right of unbounded legislation for over the colonies of America: by several acts passed in the year of the 5th the 6th & the 7th & the 8th years of the reign of his present majesty several duties were imposed for the purpose of raising a evenue on the said colonists, the powers of courts of admiralty were extended beyond their antient and the inestimable right of being tried in all cases civil trial by twelve peers of our vicinage was taken away in places affecting both life & property. By part of an act passed in the 12th year of the present reign an American colonist charged with the offenses described in that act may be transported beyond sea for trial of such offenses by the very persons against whose pretended sovereignty the supposed offense is supposed to be committed and pursuing with eagerness the newly assumed thought have in the space of 10 years during which they have exercisd yt right have made given such decisive severe specimens of the spirit [Editor: illegible word] this new legislation would be exercised conducted [[Editor: illegible word towards the establishment of absolute government over us as leaves no room to doubt the consequence of our further acquiescence under it by two those two other acts passed in the 14th of his present majesty they have assumed a right of altering the form of our governments altogether, and of thereby taking away every security for the possession of life and property.

By several acts of parliament passed in the reign of his present majesty within that period space of time they have imposed upon us duties for the purpose of raising a revenue attempted to take from us our money without our consent, they have taken away the interdicted all commerce first of of one of our principal trading towns thereby annihilating its property in the hands of the holders, & more lately they have cut off our the commercial intercourse with all of several of these of whole colonies with all foreign countries whatsoever; they have extended the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond their antient limits thereby depriving us right of trial by jury in cases affecting both life & property & subjecting both to the decision arbitrary decision of a single & dependent judge; they have declared that American subjects committing charged with certain pretended offences shall be transported beyond sea fortrial to be tried before the very persons against whose pretended sovereignty offenses supposed to be committed; they have attempted fundamentally to alter the form of government in one of these colonies, a form established by acts of its own legislature and further secured to them by charters of compact with & grants from on the part of the crown; they have erected a tyranny in a neighbouring province acquired by the joint arms of Great Britain & America, a tyranny dangerous to the very existence of all these colonies. But why should we enumerate their injuries in the detail? By one act they have suspended the powers of one American legislature & by another they have declared they may legislate for us themselves in all cases whatsoever. These two acts alone form a basis broad enough whereon to erect a despotism of unlimited extent, when it is considered that the person by whom these acts are passed are not with us subject to their [[Editor: illegible word and what is to prevent secure us against the demolition of our present & establishment of new & despotie government? this dreaded evil? The persons who assuming the power of doing this are not chosen by ourselves us, are not subject to us our controul from us are themselves freed the exempted by their situation from the operation of these laws they thus pass, and remove from themselves as much burthens as they impose on us. lighten their own burthens in proportion as they encrease ours. These temptations might put to trial the severest characters of antient virtue: with what new armour shall a British parliament then encounter the rude assault? Towards these deadly injuries from the tender plant of liberty which we have brought over & with so much affection we have planted and have fostered on these our own shores we have pursued every lawful measure. We have supplicated our king at various times in terms almost disgraceful to freedom; we have reasoned, we have remonstrated with parliament in the most mild & decent language; we have even proceeded to break off our commercial intercourse with them altogether as to the last peaceable admonition of our determination to be free by breaking of altogether our commercial intercourse with them break off our commercial intercourse with them our fellow subjects as the last peaceable admonition that our attachment to no nation on earth should supplant our attachment to liberty: and here we had well hoped was the ultimate step of the controversy. But subsequent events have shewn how vain was even this last remain of confidence in the moderation of the British ministry. During the course of the last year they their troops in a hostile manner invested the town of Boston in the province of Massachusetts bay, from that time have held the same beleaguered by sea & land. On the 19th day of April last in the present year they made an unprovoked attack assault on the inhabitants of the sd province at the town of Lexington, killed, murdered eight of them on the spot and wounded many others. From thence they proceeded in the same warlike all the array manner of war to the town of Concord where they attacked set upon another party of the inhabitants of the sd same province killing many of them also burning their houses & laying waste their property & continuing these depredations until repressed by the arms of the people assembled to oppose this hostile unprovoked cruel [[Editor: illegible word]] aggression on their lives & properties. Hostilities being thus commenced on the part of the British Ministerial troops army they have been since without respite by them pursued the same by their without regard to faith or to fame. The inhabitants of the said town of Boston having entered into treaty with a certain Thomas Gage said to be commander of these troops and who has actually been a principal actor in the siege of the town of Boston, proffered to the inhabitants of the sd town a liberty to depart from the same on principal & encourager of these in chief of adverse enormities violence enormities it was stipulated that the sd inhabitants having first deposited their arms and Editor: illegible word with their own magistrates their arms & military stores should have free liberty to depart out of the same from out of the sd town taking with them their other goods and other effects. Their arms & military stores were they accordingly delivered into their magistrates, & claimed the stipulated license of departing with their effects. But in open violation of plighted faith & honour, in defiance of those that the sacred laws of nations obligations of treaty which even the savage nations observe, their arms & warlike stores deposited with their own magistrates to be kept preserved as their property were immediately seized by a body of armed men under orders from the sd Thomas Gage, the greater part of the inhabitants were detained in the town & the few permitted to depart were compelled to leave their most valuable effects goods behind. We leave to the world their to its own reflections on this atrocious perfidy. The same Thos Gage on the 18th day of June That we might no longer be in doubt the ultimate purpose object aim of these Ministerial maneuvres, the same Thos Gage by proclamn bearing date the 12 day of June by after reciting the most abandoned grossest falsehoods & calumnies against the good people of America these colonies proceeds to declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels & traitors, to supersede by his own authority the common law of the land of the sd province and to proclaim & order instead thereof the use & exercise of the law martial throughout the sd province. This bloody edict issued, he has proceeded to commit further ravages & murders in the same province burning the town of Charlestown, & attacking & killing great numbers of the people residing or assembling therein; and is now going on in an avowed course of murder & devastation taking every occasion to destroying the lives & properties of the inhabitants of the said province.

To oppose their his arms we have also taken up arms. We should be wanting to ourselves, we should be wanting perfidious to our posterity, we should be unworthy that free ancestry from which both they & we are derived one common birth, whom we derive our birth descent, were we to suffer ourselves to be butchered, and our properties to be laid waste should we submit with folded arms to military butchery & depredation to gratify the lordly ambition of any nation on earth and or sate the avarice of a British ministry. We do then most solemnly before in the presence of before God & the world declare, that, regardless of every consequence at the risk of every distress, the arms we have been compelled to assume we will wage with bitter perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers with which our creator hath invested given us to guard preserve that sacred Liberty which He committed to us in sacred deposit, & to protect from every hostile hand our lives & our properties. But that this our declaration & our determined resolution may give no disquietude to not disquiet the minds of our good fellow subjects in any part of the empire, we do further declare and assure them that we mean not in any wise to affect that union with them in which we have so long & so happily lived & which we wish so much to see again restored: that necessity must be hard indeed which could may force upon us this desperate measure, or induce us to avail ourselves of any aid which their enemies of Great Britain might proffer. We took up arms to defend in defense of our persons & properties under actual violation: when that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the ministerial part the ministerial party therefore shall cease be suspended hostilities on their part ministerial cease part of the oppression of hostilities they shall be suspended cease on our part also; the moment they withdraw their armies we shall disband ours. We did not embody &c1next to a vigourous exertion of our own internal force we throw ourselves towards the achievement of this happy event we call for we confide in on the good offices of our fellow subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly dispositions we confide we hope with justice reason can not yet cease to hope & assure them they are aware as they must be that they have nothing more to expect from the same common enemy than the humble favour of being last devoured.

second draft

A Declaration of by

We the representatives of the United colonies of America now sitting in General Congress, to all nations send greeting of setting forth the causes & necessity of their taking up arms.

The large strides of late taken by the legislature of Great Britain towards establishing over these colonies their absolute rule, and the hardiness of the present attempt to effect by force of arms what by law or right they could never effect, render it necessary for us also to change the ground of opposition, and to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. And it behooves those, who are called to this great decision, to be assured that their cause is approved before supreme reason; so is it of great avail that its justice be made known to the world, whose affections will ever take part with those encountering oppression. Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, having long endeavored to bear up against the evils of misrule, left their native lands to seek on these shores a residence for civil & religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, with to the ruin of their fortunes, with the relinquishment of everything quiet & comfortable in life, they effected settlements in the inhospitable wilds of America; they and there established civil societies with various forms of constitution. But possessing all, what is inherent in all, the full and perfect powers of legislation. To continue their connection with the friends whom they had left, they arranged themselves by charters of compact under one the same common king, who thus completed their powers of full and perfect legislation and became the link of union between the several parts of the empire. Some occasional assumptions of power by the parliament of Great Britain, however unacknowledged by the constitution of our governments, were finally acquiesced in thro’ warmth of affection. Proceeding thus in the fullness of mutual harmony and confidence, both parts of the empire increased in population & wealth with a rapidity unknown in the history of man. The political institutions of America, its various soils and climates opened a certain resource to the unfortunate & to the enterprising of every country, and ensured to them the acquisition & free possession of property. Great Britain too acquired a lustre and a weight among the powers of the earth which her internal resources could never have given her. To a communication of the wealth and power of the whole every part of the empire we may surely ascribe in some measure the illustrious character she sustained through her last European war, & its successful event. At the close of that war however having subdued all her foes1 it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. The new ministry finding all the foes of Britain subdued she took up the unfortunate idea of subduing her friends also. By them2 & her parliament then for the first time asserted a right3 assumed a power of unbounded legislation over the colonies of America; and in the space course of ten years during which they have proceeded to exercise this right, have given such decisive specimens of the spirit of this new legislation, as leaves no room to doubt the consequence of acquiescence under it. By several acts of parliament passed within that space of time they have attempted to take from us undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent: a right of which we have ever had the exclusive exercise: they have interdicted all commerce to one of our principal towns, thereby annihilating its property in the hands of the holders; they have cut off the commercial intercourse of whole colonies with foreign countries; they have extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty beyond their antient limits; thereby they have depriving deprived us of the inestimable right privilege of trial by a jury of the vicinage in cases affecting both life & property; they have declared that American Subjects charged with certain offenses shall be transported beyond sea to be tried before the very persons against whose pretended sovereignty the offense is supposed to be committed; they have attempted fundamentally to alter the form of government in one of these colonies, a form established secured by charters on the part of the crown and confirmed by acts of its own legislature; and further secured by charters on the part of the crown; they have erected in a neighboring province acquired by the joint arms of Great Britain & America, a tyranny dangerous to the very existence of all these colonies. But why should we enumerate their injuries in the detail? By one act they have suspended the powers of one American legislature, & by another have declared they may legislate for us themselves in all cases whatsoever. These two acts alone form a basis broad enough whereon to erect a despotism of unlimited extent. And what is to secure us against this dreaded evil? The persons assuming these powers are not chosen by us, are not subject to our controul or influence, are exempted by their situation from the operation of these laws, and lighten their own burthens in proportion as they increase ours. These temptations might put to trial the severest characters of antient virtue: with what new armour then shall a British parliament encounter the rude assault? towards these deadly injuries from the tender plant of liberty which we have brought over, & with so much affection fostered on these our own shores, we have pursued every temperate, every respectful measure. We have supplicated our king at various times, in terms almost disgraceful to freedom; we have reasoned, we have remonstrated with parliament in the most mild & decent language; we have even proceeded to break off our commercial intercourse with our fellow subjects, as the last peaceful admonition that our attachment to no nation on earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. And here we had well hoped was the ultimate step of the controversy. But subsequent events have shewn how vain was even this last remain of confidence in the moderation of the British ministry.1 During the course of the last year their troops in a hostile manner invested the town of Boston in the province of Massachusetts bay, and from that time have held the same beleaguered by sea & land. On the 19th day of April in the present year they made an unprovoked attack assault on the inhabitants of the said province at the town of Lexington, murdered eight of them on the spot and wounded many others. From thence they proceeded in the all the array of war to the town of Concord, where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing many of them also, burning houses, & laying waste property, until repressed by the arms1 the people2 suddenly assembled to oppose this cruel aggression. Hostilities thus commenced on the part of the ministerial army have been since by them pursued without regard to faith or to fame. The inhabitants of the town of Boston in order to procure their enlargement having entered into treaty with a certain Thomas Gage General Gage their Governor principal instigator of these enormities3 it was stipulated that the said inhabitants,4 having first deposited their arms with their own magistrates their arms & military stores should have liberty to depart from out of the said town taking with them their other goods & effects. Their arms and military stores they accordingly delivered in, and claimed the stipulated license of departing with their effects. But in open violation of plighted faith & honour, in defiance of the sacred obligations of treaty which even savage nations observe, their arms and warlike stores, deposited with their own magistrates to be preserved as their property, were immediately seized by a body of armed men under orders from the said Thomas Gage General, the greater part of the inhabitants were detained in the town, and the few permitted to depart were compelled to leave their most valuable effects behind. We leave the world to their own its own reflections on this atrocious perfidy. That we might no longer doubt the ultimate aim of these ministerial maneuvers the same Thomas General Gage, by proclamation bearing date the 12th day of June, after reciting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels & traitors, to supersede by his own authority the exercise of the common law of the said province, and to proclaim and order instead thereof the use and exercise of the law martial. This bloody edict issued, he has proceeded to commit further ravages & murders in the same province, burning the town of Charlestown, attacking & killing great numbers of the people residing or assembled therein; and is now going on in an avowed course of murder & devastation, taking every occasion to destroy the lives & properties of the inhabitants of the said province. To oppose his arms we also have taken up arms. We should be wanting to ourselves, we should be perfidious to posterity, we should be unworthy that free ancestry from whom which we derive our descent, should we submit with folded arms to military butchery & depredation, to gratify the lordly ambition, or sate the avarice of a British ministry. We do then most solemnly, before God and the world declare that, regardless of every consequence, at the risk of every distress, the arms we have been compelled to assume we will wage use with the perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers which our creator hath given us, to guard preserve that liberty which he committed to us in sacred deposit & to protect from every hostile hand our1 lives & our properties. But that this our declaration may not disquiet the minds of our good fellow subjects2 in any parts of the empire, we do further assure them that we mean not in any wise to affect that union with them in which we have so long & so happily lived and which we wish so much to see again restored. That necessity must be hard indeed which may force upon us that desperate measure, or induce us to avail ourselves of any aid which their enemies might proffer. We did not embody a soldiery to commit aggression on them; we did not raise armies for glory or for conquest; we did not invade their island carrying death or slavery to its inhabitants. We took up arms in defence of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms we have taken up arms when that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also. The moment they withdraw their armies, we will disband ours. For the atchievement of this happy event, we call for & confide in the good offices of our fellow subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly dispositions we do not cease to hope; aware, as they must be, that they have nothing more to expect from the same common enemy, than the humble favour of being last devoured. And we devoutly implore assistance of Almighty God to conduct us happily thro’ this great conflict, to dispose the minds of his majesty, his ministers, & parliament to reasonable terms reconciliation with us on reasonable terms, & to deliver us from the evils of a civil war.

? If it might not be proper to take notice of Ld. Chatham’s Plan and its being [[Editor: illegible word mentioning his great abilities.

? If it might not be proper to take notice how many great Men in Parlt. and how many considerable Cities and Towns in England, have acknowledged the Justice of our Cause.

? Ld. North’s Proposals.1

[1 ]The first of these papers is apparently Jefferson’s rough draft, the second being that submitted to the committee. They are both printed, with the parts struck out or altered, as an interesting specimen of the way he drew his papers. The originals are in the Jefferson MSS. in the Department of State. The second draft has MSS. notes in the handwriting of John Dickinson. Cf. his letter to John Vaughn of July 16, 1825, post.

The adoption of the troops about Boston into the Continental service, and the appointment of Washington as Commander in Chief, were the first real steps on the part of the United Colonies towards war, and required explanation and justification from Congress. On June 23d accordingly, “on a motion” the Congress “Resolved, That a Committee of five be chosen to draw up a Declaration to be published by General Washington, upon his Arrival at the Camp before Boston. The Committee chosen are Mr. J. Rutledge, Mr. W. Livingston, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Jay and Mr. Johnson” (Journal). This commee brought in their “Report” on June 24th, which “was read and debated, and after some Time referred for farther consideration.” Charles Thomson states (Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biography) that it “occasioned long and warm debates in Congress, in which D[ickinson] took a distinguished part.” It was again considered on June 26th, and, according to Jefferson (endorsement on draft of declaration):

“Being disliked, it was recommitted & Mr. Dickinson & T. Jefferson added to the committee. The latter being desired by the commee to draw up a new one, he prepared this paper. On a meeting of the commee J. Dickinson objected that it was too harsh, wanted softening &c. Whereupon the commee desired him to retouch it, which he did in the form which they reported July 6, which was adopted by Congress.”

And in his Autobiography Jefferson further stated:

“On the 24th a committee which had been appointed to prepare a declaration of the causes of the taking up arms brought in their report (drawn I believe by J. Rutledge) which, not being liked, the House recommitted it, on the 26th and added Mr. Dickinson and myself to the committee. On the rising of the House, the committee not having yet met I happen to find myself near Governor W. Livingston, and proposed to him to draw the paper. He excused himself, and proposed that I should draw it. . . . 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 the half of the preceding one. We approved and reported it to Congress.”

William Livingston also wrote (to Stirling, July 4th):

“We are now working upon a Manifesto on arming. The first was not liked by the Congress and was recomitted. The second was not liked by the committee. Both had the faults common to our Southern gentlemen. Much fault-finding and declamation, with little sense or dignity. They seem to think a reiteration of tyranny, despotism, bloody, &c. all that is needed to unite us at home and convince the bribed voters of North of the justice of our cause.”

It is evident from a comparison of these two drafts, with Dickinson’s draft (reproduced in Dr. George H. Moore’s John Dickinson) as well as with that ultimately adopted by the Congress (Journal, July 6th), that Jefferson is mistaken in claiming the final paragraphs of that accepted as his. Dickinson has certainly embodied a few of Jefferson’s phrases and ideas, but not more so in those than in the other parts of the Declaration.

[1 ]Jefferson writes at bottom of page: “We did not embody men a soldiery to commit aggression on them; we did not raise armies for march to glory or to conquest or for glory; we did not invade their island proffering death or slavery to its inhabitants.”

[1 ]John Dickinson has here interlined “her successful & glorious ministry wars.”

[2 ]John Dickinson has here altered it to read “by their influence.”

[3 ]Altered by Dickinson to “were persuaded to assume & assert.”

[1 ]“Here insert substance of the Address declaring a Rebellion to exist in Massachusetts Bay, &c.”—Marginal note by John Dickinson.

[1 ]“Country” inserted here by Dickinson.

[2 ]“Only” inserted by Dickinson.

[3 ]“To procure their Enlargement,‘’ inserted by Dickinson.

[4 ]Dickinson inserts here the word “after.”

[1 ]“Friends &” inserted by Dickinson.

[2 ]“In Britain or other” inserted by Dickinson.

[1 ]These three queries are in the handwriting of John Dickinson.