July 3--Sympathy for Thomas Jefferson Day

Everybody knows about July 4, but what was happening on July 3, 1776?  On that day, the draft of the Declaration of Independence submitted by Thomas Jefferson was edited by the Continental Congress, meeting as a committee.  Jefferson had to sit there, “the writhing author,” says my well-worn history of the Declaration, while his words were criticized, deleted and altered.  Jefferson “was far less happy when his handiwork was subjected to what he called the ‘depredations’ of Congress.” He “kept silent for propriety’s sake,” but “in his opinion, they did a good deal of damage [as] the delegates took a hand in the drafting.”  

All those who have worked assiduously on their writing, then had it edited by a committee, will have lively sympathy for Jefferson every July 3!

The Congress “effected economy in words,”  “deleted unnecessary phrases,”  “eliminated the most extravagantly worded of all the charges [against King George],” “deleted a passage in which Scottish mercenaries were coupled with foreign [ones],” changed Jefferson’s final paragraph so as to include in it the precise language of the resolution of independence just adopted [on July 2]”, and “left out several moving phrases of his toward the end.”

I have reviewed the edits made by the Congress, and find that they definitely improved the final, world historical document.  Nonetheless, to sit there while your work suffers “depredations” by a committee of your colleagues, even if they are in fact improvements, is surely difficult.  Our sympathy for the author should be undiminished.

1. Dumas Malone, The Story of the Declaration of Independence, Oxford University Press, 1954.