Committee of Five

Committee of Five
John Trumbull · Public domain · source
Name	Committee of Five
Formed	June 1776
Purpose	Drafting a declaration for the Continental Congress
Members	John Adams; Thomas Jefferson; Benjamin Franklin; Roger Sherman; Robert R. Livingston
Jurisdiction	Continental Congress; Second Continental Congress
Location	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Committee of Five The Committee of Five was a provisional drafting group appointed by the Second Continental Congress in June 1776 to prepare a formal declaration announcing the Thirteen Colonies' separation from Great Britain. Its brief produced the document adopted on July 4, 1776, which became central to the political identity of the United States during the American Revolutionary War. The committee's work intersected with debates involving colonial leaders, provincial congresses, and international figures.

Background and Formation

In spring 1776, the Continental Congress and colonial assemblies such as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly confronted escalating crises after events including the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Delegates from colonies like Virginia, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and New York debated resolutions influenced by pamphlets such as Common Sense by Thomas Paine and writings by John Locke. On June 7, 1776, a resolution introduced by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed independence, prompting the Congress of the Confederation to create a committee to prepare a formal declaration. The selection reflected geographic and political balances among delegates from New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies.

Membership

The committee comprised five delegates chosen by the Continental Congress: a leading Virginian, a principal Pennsylvanian, a prominent New Englander, and representatives from Connecticut and New York. The primary drafter was a delegate from Virginia who had studied law at College of William & Mary and corresponded with figures like James Madison and Edmund Randolph. The committee included an elder statesman who had served as Postmaster General and as a colonial envoy to France; a future Chancellor of New York (state) who had been educated at Columbia College; a Connecticut magistrate who sat on local probate and town committees; and a Massachusetts-born advocate who later served as the second President under the 1796 election. These members' networks connected them to leaders such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton.

Drafting the Declaration of Independence

The committee produced a draft drawing on Enlightenment texts, legal precedents, and colonial charters. The principal author revised earlier drafts under the influence of philosophers like John Locke, jurists of English Bill of Rights tradition, and writers including Marquis de Lafayette's correspondents. The draft articulated grievances tied to acts such as the Stamp Act 1765 and the Coercive Acts and cited incidents involving the Boston Massacre and the Quartering Act. After internal revisions, the document underwent committee edits acknowledging colonial petitions, appeals to the "opinions of mankind," and principles later echoed by statesmen like Benjamin Rush and James Wilson.

Meetings and Deliberations

The committee met within the Pennsylvania State House where delegates debated wording, chronology, and attribution of specific acts to the British Crown versus the British Parliament. Deliberations referenced ongoing military campaigns including the Siege of Boston and contemplated the diplomatic repercussions for negotiating with powers such as France and the Dutch Republic. Committee negotiations balanced radical and conservative positions voiced by delegations from South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina; they also considered the military leadership of Continental Army commanders such as George Washington and the logistical concerns of commissaries and quartermasters. The committee coordinated with congressional committees handling foreign correspondence and military supplies, and its sessions involved exchanges with delegates like John Rutledge, Gouverneur Morris, Elbridge Gerry, and Robert Treat Paine.

Reception and Legacy

When the Congress debated the committee's draft, amendments were proposed by delegates including representatives from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. The revised document was adopted on July 4, 1776, and its dissemination involved printers such as John Dunlap and distribution to colonial assemblies, militias, and foreign courts. The declaration influenced revolutionary movements and figures including Simon Bolivar, Toussaint Louverture, Jeffersonian Republicans, and later constitutional framers at the Philadelphia Convention. Its language was cited in abolitionist rhetoric by leaders like Frederick Douglass and reformers associated with the Abolitionist movement and during suffrage campaigns led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Internationally, diplomats such as Benjamin Franklin used the document in negotiations with representatives of Louis XVI of France, envoys from Spain, and merchants in Amsterdam.

The committee's brief existence left enduring institutional traces in American political culture, influencing legal arguments in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, rhetorical traditions in the State of the Union Address, and historiography by scholars at institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, and the American Philosophical Society. Monuments and commemorations in Philadelphia and across the United States honor the document's adoption, and its text continues to be invoked in debates over citizenship by advocates at organizations such as the National Archives and Records Administration and academics at the Library of Congress.

Category:American Revolution