A longer version of today’s Quacks Facts
Thomas Jefferson preserved a four-page draft that late in life he called the “original Rough draught”.[94] Known to historians as the Rough Draft, early students of the Declaration believed that this was a draft written alone by Jefferson and then presented to the Committee of Five. Scholars now believe that the Rough Draft was not actually an “original Rough draught”, but was instead a revised version completed by Jefferson after consultation with the Committee.[95] How many drafts Jefferson wrote prior to this one, and how much of the text was contributed by other committee members, is unknown. In 1947, Boyd discovered a fragment in Jefferson’s handwriting that predates the Rough Draft. Known as the Composition Draft, this fragment is the earliest known version of the Declaration.[96] The earliest known draft of the Declaration is the Composition Draft, a fragment in Jefferson’s handwriting.
Jefferson showed the Rough Draft to Adams and Franklin, and perhaps other committee members,[97] who made a few more changes. Franklin, for example, may have been responsible for changing Jefferson’s original phrase “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “We hold these truths to be self-evident”.[98] Jefferson incorporated these changes into a copy that was submitted to Congress in the name of the Committee. Jefferson kept the Rough Draft and made additional notes on it as Congress revised the text. He also made several copies of the Rough Draft without the changes made by Congress, which he sent to friends, including Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe, after July 4. At some point in the process, Adams also wrote out a copy.[99]
The copy that was submitted to Congress by the Committee on June 28 is known as the Fair Copy. Presumably, the Fair Copy was marked up by secretary Charles Thomson while Congress debated and revised the text.[100] This document was the one that Congress approved on July 4, making it the first “official” copy of the Declaration. The Fair Copy was sent to be printed under the title “A Declaration by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled”. The Fair Copy has been lost, and was perhaps destroyed in the printing process.[101] If a document was signed on July 4, it would have been the Fair Copy, and would likely have been signed only by John Hancock, president of Congress, and secretary Charles Thomson.[102]