The Declaration of Independence
This collection charts the development of the Declaration of Independence as it traversed from the Committee of Five to Congress. This collection is still under construction, and we will be regularly adding small amounts of new material.
This collection presents the available digital scans of the sources listed in the appendices of Pauline Maier's book, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. The appendices are divided into three categories: A, B, and C.
Appendix A features a catalogue of state and local declarations of Independence, as compiled by Maier. Appendix B features a small selection of local resolutions on independence, many of which also appear in Appendix A.
Due to copyright restrictions, the contents of Appendix C do not feature in the collection. That appendix holds Maier's transcription of the Declaration of Independence with Congress' editorial changes.
All items follow the titling conventions as found in her book (Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, New York: Vintage Books, Random House Inc., 1997).
This collection contains digital scans of the Journals kept by the Second Continental Congress through the years 1774 to 1776, which have been edited, annotated, and published in 1906.
This collection contains a selection of documents related to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. These include: the preamble of Jefferson's first and third draft of his proposed Virginia Constitution; the Rough Draft of the Declaration, which shows the various interlineations made by the authors; and the copy of the Declaration as transcribed by John Adams.