Declaration of Independence The "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence,
one of the great milestones in American history. This is the only surviving fragment of the broadside of the Declaration
of Independence printed by John Dunlap and sent on July 6, 1776,
to George Washington by John Hancock, President of the Continental
Congress in Philadelphia. General Washington had this Declaration
read to his assembled troops on July 9 in New York, where they awaited
the combined British fleet and army. The Declaration of Independence was the defining moment of Jefferson's
life. He envisioned a utopian political arena of continuous revolution,
where each generation remade its laws and constitutions. In his
letter to Roger Weightman, the mayor of Washington, Jefferson continued
to espouse his vision of the Declaration and the nation as signals
to the world of the blessings of self-government in an ever-evolving
society. Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration
of Independence Drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776 became the defining
event in Thomas Jefferson's life. Despite Jefferson's desire to
return to Virginia to help write that state's constitution, the
Continental Congress appointed him to the five-person committee
for drafting a declaration of independence.
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