Library of Congress debuts Jefferson’s rare Declaration draft with edits

Tracing the Evolution of the Declaration

The exhibit offers visitors a glimpse into the collaborative process behind the birth of the United States. According to CBS News, the document on display is Jefferson’s fully-realized draft, which contains handwritten revisions from key Founding Fathers. These edits reveal how the language of the nation was refined during the summer of 1776, when Jefferson wrote the document from his rented apartment on the second floor of a home in Philadelphia.

“You can see them changing words throughout and kind of distilling the initial draft into the draft that we know today.” — Ryan Reft, lead curator for the exhibit

One of the most significant changes highlighted in the exhibit involves the terminology used to describe the American people. As noted in the exhibit, Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Adams pushed for the use of the word “citizens” instead of “subjects.” As Reft explained, “They were breaking from a monarchy and they were breaking from the idea of kinship through ethnicity, creating a country based on this critical idea established in the Declaration that was new and that we were not subject to anyone. We were subject to each other. We were citizens.”

Franklin’s Influence on Foundational Rights

The drafting process was not without debate over the specific philosophical underpinnings of the new nation. Kevin Butterfield, acting chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, noted that the famous phrase regarding self-evident truths underwent a deliberate revision. Jefferson originally wrote that rights were “sacred and undeniable,” but Franklin suggested a shift in language.

“Initially, Thomas Jefferson had said, ‘We hold these rights to be sacred and undeniable.’ And Ben Franklin said, no, actually, maybe we should say ‘self-evident.'” — Kevin Butterfield, acting chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress

Writing from his Philadelphia apartment during a hot summer, Jefferson could hear voices on the street, which reminded him to write for the common man rather than the educated elite. At the time of writing, only four colonies had instructed their delegates to support independence; once the Declaration made its appearance, the remaining colonies joined the cause.

Addressing the Contradictions of Equality

The phrase “all men are created equal” serves as the exhibit’s centerpiece, though curators are quick to acknowledge the historical limitations of that language. Reft noted that at the time of the signing, the Declaration’s promise of equality “probably only applied to White men,” ignoring women, enslaved folks, and Native Americans. However, he argued that the inherent power of the document lies in its ability to be reinterpreted. “But that’s the great thing about the Declaration — even in its weaknesses there is strength — the sense that the language he created, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, consent of the governed, enabled those folks who were unequal at the time to get to judge for themselves what equality was,” Reft said.

The exhibit connects this early struggle to subsequent milestones in American history, showcasing:

• President Abraham Lincoln’s draft of the Gettysburg Address, which addresses the basic idea of equality.
• Speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis from the Civil Rights Movement.

By juxtaposing the original draft with these later efforts, the exhibition illustrates how marginalized groups have used the language of the Declaration to demand their own inclusion. As Reft told CBS News, “These are moments to kind of look back and see where we are, and see where we should be.”

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