Editorial Note on the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, 6 July 1775

Editorial Note on the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms

On June 23 Congress appointed a committee of five, Franklin among them, to draft a declaration to the world that Washington would publish when he reached camp outside Boston. The committee reported its draft the next day, and on the 26th Congress, after some debate, recommitted it and added John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson to the committee. These newcomers between them composed a second version, which was reported on July 6 and adopted with minor changes. The question of which man wrote the famous declaration has generated much controversy among historians.6 But no one to our knowledge has suggested, and we have no reason to believe, that Franklin played any part in its composition.

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

6. See Boyd, Jefferson Papers, I, 187–92.

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Source Project: Franklin Papers
Title: Editorial Note on the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, 6 July 1775
Date: 6 July 1775

Reference

Cite as: “Editorial Note on the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, 6 July 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0054. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 22, March 23, 1775, through October 27, 1776, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 1982, pp. 88–89.]