Which patriot drafted the declaration of independence

Franklin, though a master at coining aphorisms, would likely have included a joke in the Declaration if he had authored it. It should be noted that since the resolution of independence had been introduced in the name of Virginia, tradition called for a representative of that colony.

Richard Henry Lee, a Patriot leader from Virginia, may have been a natural choice to draft the Declaration. But while Lee was an eloquent public speaker, Jefferson wielded an inspiring pen, and a mind to match.

Also it was believed that Lee expected to return home to Virginia shortly. It seemed appropriate that Jefferson be chosen because he stood next to Lee in the Virginia delegation.

The desk remained in the Coolidge family until April , when the family donated it to the U. In his letter, Jefferson wrote: "Mr. Coolidge must do me the favor of accepting this [gift]. Its imaginary value will increase with years, and if he lives to my age, or another half-century, he may see it carried in the procession of our nation's birthday, as the relics of the Saints are in those of the Church.

Nominate this object for photography. Beautiful pictures and thank you for sharing. I have just started building a reproduction of this desk with my year-old grandson and this was very helpful. Now I just need to find a source for those unusual hinges. Perhaps it's no coincidence that they are very similar to modern "desk hinges", only much smaller. Scott Markwood Fri, As a woodworker it would be nice to see all views of Jefferson's lap desk. And the interior too. I'm in the planning stage to build a case for a lap top computer.

Thank you for your time. James Murry. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

When armed conflict between bands of American colonists and British soldiers began in April , the Americans were ostensibly fighting only The delegates then spent the next The Fourth of July—also known as Independence Day or July 4th—has been a federal holiday in the United States since , but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution. On July 2nd, , the Continental Congress In April , a provocative article appeared in the pages of the Raleigh Register newspaper in North Carolina.

From to , the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in in reaction to the Coercive Acts, a series of measures Thomas Jefferson , author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U.

When the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War broke out in Massachusetts in April , few people in the American colonies wanted to separate from Great Britain entirely. Washington explained that Congress had "dissolved the connection" between "this country" and Great Britain and declared the "United Colonies of North America" to be "free and independent states.

Next came Jefferson's stirring words explaining " The words were so moving that citizens who had heard the declaration raced down Broadway toward a large statue of King George III. They toppled and decapitated it, later melting down the body for bullets that would be much needed in the coming battles to defend New York and the new nation that lay beyond it.

Freeman, Douglas Southall. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.