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Learn how the Declaration of Independence was drafted, reviewed by the Continental Congress, and adopted

Learn how the Declaration of Independence was drafted, reviewed by the Continental Congress, and adopted
Learn how the Declaration of Independence was drafted, reviewed by the Continental Congress, and adopted
This video dramatizes the events surrounding the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript

JEFFERSON: Well, a committee was appointed with five men--Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman--and I served as chairman. When I asked John Adams to write the document, he refused, saying I could write much better than he. So I consented. Adams and Franklin made only a few edits, but Congress made several changes. I squirmed under the ordeal and I remember Franklin saying he made it a rule whenever in his power, to avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. But the document survived. And on the evening of July 4, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed.