Congress revised more than a quarter of Jefferson’s draft over two days of debate

Evidence

Without stopping to celebrate, no sooner had the delegates proclaimed independence than Congress resumed meeting as a committee of the whole to consider the draft document from Jefferson’s committee declaring the causes that impelled the separation. Before those deliberations began, New Hampshire’s Josiah Bartlett graded the committee draft as “a pretty good one,” but revisions by Congress made it better. The process took two days. While retaining the eloquent tone and tri-part structure of Jefferson’s original draft, Congress cut or changed more than one-fourth of its text, mainly by sharpening the listed grievances against the king and reworking the final paragraph. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 222

Categorization

• XREF: The Declaration was a collective product heavily revised by committee-of-the-whole deliberation, echoing how statutes and judicial opinions emerge from group interpretation processes. — connects to: Congress condensed Jefferson’s slavery grievance into a single phrase about domestic insurrection — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 213; Congress added divine references Jefferson’s church-state views kept out — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 215; Congress debated the Virginia independence resolution before revisiting the Declaration draft (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Congress deleted Jefferson’s slavery passage from the Declaration because it divided the colonies #expands (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 104