Declaration of Independence - 2nd Page of Manuscript

This is the second page of the Declaration’s manuscript, which Thomas Jefferson later called “the original Rough draught.”

According to the Library of Congress:

This copy of the Declaration represents the fair copy that the committee presented to Congress. Jefferson noted that ‘the parts struck out by Congress shall be distinguished by a black line drawn under them, & those inserted by them shall be placed in the margin or in a concurrent column.’

Reviewing the four pages of the original draft, we get a sense of the evolution of the text as it moved from Jefferson, to the committee and then to all the delegates.

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