Thomas Paine and the
Declaration of Independence
An early manuscript draft of the Declaration of Independence has emerged that appears to offer additional insight into the evolution of one of our nation’s Charters of Freedom, and the individuals involved in its creation. We can refer to this document as Roger Sherman’s draft copy, since it was used to inform Roger Sherman of the draft status of the Declaration during the fourth week of June, 1776.While the discovery of this manuscript is exciting to scholars of early American history as a tangible artifact used during the creation of the Declaration, its significance extends beyond. This manuscript provides unique insight into the drafting process via edits made while this copy was produced from the original in Thomas Jefferson’s possession.
Interestingly, this working draft manuscript also contains an inscription that potentially demonstrates Thomas Paine’s direct influence and involvement in its creation. The notion of Thomas Paine’s involvement in drafting the Declaration is not a newly formulated hypothesis. Rather, historians and scholars have debated the possibility of his direct involvement for the better portion of the last two centuries, while multiple authors have offered scholarly insight, including Moody, Van der Weyde, Lewis, and more recently, Smith & Rickards.(1) Despite these previous efforts in establishing Paine’s connection to the Declaration text, no tangible evidence emerged to potentially corroborate these conclusions – until now.
A beginning, perhaps—original with Jefferson—copied from the original with T.P.’s permission.
But what did those words mean?
