Committee of Five

The Committee of Five was the group delegated by the Second Continental Congress on June 11, 1776 to draft the United States Declaration of Independence.

Members

The "Committee of Five": Sherman, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Livingston.

The committee consisted of:

• John Adams of Massachusetts
• Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania
• Thomas Jefferson of Virginia
• Robert R. Livingston of New York
• Roger Sherman of Connecticut

Deliberations

The Committee of Five presenting their work to the Congress. Painting by John Trumbull.

According to Jefferson:

"The Committee of 5 met, no such thing as a sub-committee was proposed, but they unanimously pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught. I consented; I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams requesting their corrections;. . . Their alterations were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered to the Congress." [1]

See also

• Founding Fathers of the United States
• History of the United States

External links

• Declaration of Independence at the National Archives website.