Show r set bet F forth orth truths ruths a A ys y s jefferson lid did nt not need to create the declaration ile he had but to ex express espres pres lie he sentiments which were common to he mass of freedom loving men in after beirs when enemies declared bat tile authorship of the declaration if t 1 independence displayed a lack of originality and that every idea in ID it wa as hackneyed and was to be found in half a 1 dozen earlier publications jefferson JelTer sou replied with perfect wisdom and fairness 1 I did not consider it as iny any part ot of my charge to invent new ideas altogether and to offer no sentiment winch had been expressed before it is this fact that has haa led some historians to allege that thomas paine may have had a hand in the writing of the declaration of independence for without doubt there were expressed in some of his previous writings ideas of liberty and justice that of necessity animated many of the sentiments embodied in the doc document fileni as as written by jefferson cut but there seems to be no adequate foundation for the truth of tile the statement that paine had any direct hand in its framing jefferson set forth in precise terms term the for the colonies withdrawal from british rule in the classic with which every ayery schoolboy is familiar the original draft in his handwriting Is now in the state department archives at washington it shows trifling alterations interlined interlinked inter lined in the handwriting of franklin and adams otherwise it came before congress precisely as jefferson wrote it jeffersons own account of the drafting of tile the declaration bears out this opinion according to his statement when the committee came together lie he was pressed by his colleagues to undertake the oie draft that he did so that when he prepared it he submitted it to dr franklin and mr adams separately requesting their corrections which were two or three only interlined interlinked Inter lined in their own handwritings that the report in shape was adopted by the committee and a fair copy writt written en I 1 out by jefferson was then read |