The United States Declaration of Independence is treated as sacred text, a pristine expression of universal ideals penned by Thomas Jefferson in a burst of revolutionary inspiration. The actual history of the document is far messier, more contentious, and more revealing than the mythology allows. The Declaration was a committee product, heavily edited by Congress, shaped by political compromises, and written to serve immediate strategic purposes that had as much to do with foreign diplomacy and domestic politics as with philosophical principle. Jefferson did not write the Declaration alone or in isolation. Congress appointed a five-member committee including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston to draft the document. Jefferson produced the initial text, but it underwent significant revision by the committee and then f ...