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The Committee of Five was a committee formed during the Second Continental Congress from June 11 to July 5 in 1776 whose task was to draft and present documentation declaring the independence of the united* States of America. The five member committee presented to the Congress what would become the Declaration of Independence, which was ultimately dated July 4, 1776 (though it was published July 5). The members of the Committee of Five were John Adams of Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert Livingston of New York. There has been an ongoing debate over who may have influenced or directly contributed to the writing of the Declaration of Independence outside the Committee of Five, of which the name Thomas Paine is a frequent mention. The resolution to form the committee was moved by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia on June 7, 1776.
Jefferson's first draft provided a scathing criticism of Great Britain's use of slavery against the colonies, but the anti-slavery language was ultimately removed July 1, 1776 due to two States threatening not to approve the document should the language remain. The goal was for the States to be unanimous in their declaration, so the protests regarding the language by Georgia and South Carolina was considered, and ultimately led to the removal of the anti-slavery language. The other eleven States all approved of the anti-slavery language, a fact that stands in opposition to the Critical Race Theory argument that the Revolutionary War was fought for the purpose of preserving slavery.
The first presentation of the Declaration of Independence to the Congress was on June 28, 1776, an event commemorated by the John Trumbull painting bearing the same name as the document.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
* The word "united" in this instance in this article is lower-case as it is on the original document.
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