Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were no longer a part of the British Empire, exists in a number of drafts, handwritten copies, and published broadsides. The earliest known draft of the Declaration of Independence is a fragment known as the "Composition Draft." The draft, written in July 1776, is in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration. It was discovered in 1947 by historian Julian P. Boyd in the Jefferson papers at the Library
United States Declaration of Independence minority in Parliament warned that the government was driving the colonists toward independence. Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" was published in January 1776, just as it became clear in the colonies that the king was not inclined to act as a conciliator. Paine had only recently arrived in the colonies from England, and he argued in favor of colonial independence, advocating republicanism as an alternative to monarchy and hereditary rule. "Common Sense" made a persuasive and impassioned case for independence, which had not yet been given serious intellectual consideration in the American colonies. Paine connected independence with Protestant beliefs as