Committee of Five

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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." Letter to Madison, 1823

See also

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

Notes