{"data":{"description":"Archiving Early America - Congress Deletes A Fourth Of Jefferson's Text Of The Declaration Of Independence","title":"Congress Deletes A Fourth of Jefferson's Text Of The Declaration of Independence","post_type":"page","content":"\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003ePrior to their submission of the draft to Congress, Jefferson and his colleagues made a total of forty-seven alterations to the text. Adams and Franklin, along with Jefferson himself, each made changes in the document while neither Roger Sherman nor Robert Livingston made any. The five-man Committee then submitted the draft to Congress on June 28.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"divimgleft\" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #990000;\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"alignleft\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/PresentingJeffersonsDraft.jpg\" alt=\"Presenting Jefferson's Draft\" width=\"300\" height=\"297\" /\u003ePresenting Jefferson's Draft to Congress\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eWhile Jefferson fared well at the hands of his fellow committeemen, in that the changes in his draft were minor, Congress was another matter. Jefferson felt at the time that his handiwork was subjected to what he called the 'depredations' of Congress.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eOver several days of debate, more than a quarter of the text was deleted, most notably a scathing denunciation of the slave trade. It was no secret that Jefferson resented those changes. He noted at the time: passages were “struck out in complaisance to S. Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves \u0026 who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little under those censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves, yet they have been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eCongress also struck out “those passages which conveyed censure on the people of England.” Jefferson's later reaction: “the pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with still haunted the minds of many.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"divimgright\" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #990000;\"\u003e\u003cimg class=\"alignleft\" src=\"/images/earlyamerica/Delegates.jpg\" alt=\"Delegates\" width=\"300\" height=\"297\" /\u003eDelegates debate the Declaration\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eCongress also changed Jefferson's original phrase \"sacred and undeniable\" truths to \"self-evident,\" which appears in the document today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eBut to its everlasting credit, Congress saw fit to retain what has become “one of the best-known sentences in the human language” and “the most potent and consequential words in American history.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eNamely:\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cblockquote style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eIt should also be noted that the word 'inalienable' appears in the original text, though this has come down over the years in printed versions as 'unalienable.' Blame it on Congress or the printer, \"unalienable\" is the word that survived.\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch4 style=\"color: #ad8431;\"\u003eFour Things You Need to Know About The Declaration of Independence\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003col style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/asked-jefferson-write-first-draft-declaration-independence/\"\u003eWhy They Asked Jefferson To Write The First Draft\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/declaration-independence-written/\"\u003eHow The Declaration of Independence Was Written\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/congress-deletes-fourth-jeffersons-text-declaration-independence/\"\u003eCongress Deletes A Fourth of Jefferson's Text\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/declaration-independence-declaration-independence/\"\u003eWhy The Declaration of Independence Is Not The Declaration of Independence\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cul style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003eRead the \u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/declaration-independence/\"\u003etext version of the Declaration of Independence\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003eTake Our \u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/early-america-quiz/declaration-of-independence-quiz/\"\u003eDeclaration of Independence Quiz\u003c/a\u003e and Test Your Knowledge of America's Great Freedom Document\u003c/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #990000;\" href=\"/earlyamerica/freedom-documents/declaration-independence/\"\u003eBack to Declaration of Independence\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\t\u003cli\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone"},{"path":"lives-early-america/true-story-paul-revere","title":"The True Story of Paul Revere"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"portrait","title":"Portraits"},{"path":"rare-images/last-men-revolution","title":"The Last Men of the Revolution"}]},{"path":"freedom-documents","title":"Freedom Documents","submenu":[{"path":"freedom-documents/bill-rights","title":"Bill of Rights"},{"path":"freedom-documents/declaration-independence","title":"Declaration of Independence"},{"path":"freedom-documents/u-s-constitution","title":"The U.S. Constitution"}]},{"path":"world-early-america","title":"World of Early America","submenu":[{"path":"bookmarks","title":"Early American Bookmarks"},{"path":"world-early-america/famous-obits","title":"Famous Obits"},{"path":"firsts","title":"Firsts!"},{"path":"rare-images/maps","title":"Maps"},{"path":"rare-images","title":"Rare Images"},{"path":"music1","title":"Music"},{"path":"writings","title":"The Writings of Early America"}]},{"path":"boston-massacre","title":"Boston Massacre"},{"path":"milestone-events","title":"Milestones"},{"path":"early-america-review","title":"The Review"},{"path":"home/teachers-students","title":"Teachers"},{"path":"sitemap","title":"Sitemap"}]},"success":true}