Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-06
WHO WROTE THE
DECLARATION?
jefferson Claimed the Credit,
But Internal Evidence Points
to His Friend, Thomas
Paine
BY JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS

BY JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS
MANY wise heads have held that one
1Fl Of the most fragrant Of our histori-
cal fallacies is that which has long
credited Thomas Jefferson with author
ship of the original draft of the Declara-
ton of Independence
History states that on June 10, 1776,
the lower house of Congress sitting in
Philadelphia, entrusted the framing OF
that great instrument to a COMMITTEES
composed of John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Roger Sherman. Robert r..
| Livingston and Jefferson. Less authentic
history states that OF these Franklin was
first selected for the task, but that his
colleagues fearing his sense of humor,
turned to others on the committee and
finally entrusted the duty to Jefferson.
In fact, tourists to Philadelphia today
are shown a tablet which marks build.
ing at the corner of 9TH and Market
streets as the site of the house in which
the great Virglnian wrote the original
draft of the document which was to
sever us from the mother country.
Whoever wrote the original Declare
ton saw 1t altered considerably by Con-
gress before that body eventually adopted
it, and there is no record of the militant
Jefferson's having ever uttered any pro-
test against these changes.
Some students of history, after con-
sidering the Evidence in the case, have
professed to be convinced that Jefferson
did not frame the original draft for the
following y6easons: ~
yiewA Jefferson Did Not Hold
That tn draft excoriated the British
King fpru ng carried on the slave trade,
who's rson was a STAKEHOLDER:
thai rebuke against Scotch
andy Fcenaries," whereas Jeffer-
son ularly fond of the people
Of Scd std that 1t contained certain
expressly (which Jeffersons writings
nowhere contain, as we'll as certain In
situations rejecting views opposite to
his. Some of the authorities, who have
carefully weighed all of the evidence,
claim that these sentiments and express
sions so ill-befitting jefferson exactly
fit the theories and echo the expressions
of a genius who, while dwelling in Phila-
delphia at that very time, was one OF
Jefferson's most intimate advisers.
This man was Thomas Paine, a native
of England, the son of Quaker corset
maker, who, after serving apprenticeship
in his fathers trade, had undertaken
such various occupations as grocer, rev.
enue man, schoolmaster, nonconformist
preacher and pamphleteer. Paine had
been a man of rowing disposition and
dissolute habits. His first wife died
within q year after their marriage, and
he had then taken a second bride,
but had deserted her for the wife of a
Paris publisher. He was self.willed and
arrogant, yet possessed of a wonderfully
brilliant mind. While Benjamin Frank
lin was our representative in London
Paine wrote an attack on the British
royal system which contained so much
punch" that Franklin sought the young
author and persuaded him TO come to
Philadelphia in 1774. He employed his
agile pen as a protege of Franklin, who
obtained for him the editorship of the
Pennsylvania Magazine. He was writ
ing forceful articles against slavery and
In favor of American independence when
he met Jefferson upon the eve of the
framing of the Declaration.
The theory OF those who would de-
prive him of the honor of having com.
posed the original draft of the Declare
ton is that jefferson, upon being selected
to make that draft turned to his friend
Paine as the man best able to put into
emphatic and forceful language the sen"
timents which should be- embodied in that
great instrument, and that Paine had
Injected into the document some of his
own pet theories.
Paine's Crisp Sentences
The tact that the Declaration slighted
the issue of unjust taxation has been put
forth as a further argument in favor OF
Paine's authorship. He regarded that
Issue as unimportant, whereas Jefferson
had fought for 1t strenuously.
Paine was the author of the pamphlet
Common Sense whose forceful arguments
in favor of independence brought him
as reward a vote of 500 pounds from the