The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE / CONTRIBUTIONS TO
Your statements of the corrections of the Declaration of Independence
by Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams are neither of them at all exact. I
should think it better to say generally that the rough draft Was
communicated to those two gentlemen, who each of them made two or
three short and verbal alterations only, but even this is laying more
stress on mere composition than it merits, for that alone was mine.
The sentiments were of all America.
to Joseph Delaplaine, 12 April 1817
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