One of the Committee of Five

The United States Declaration of Independence was composed of a group of five men, including Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was appointed to compose the Declaration of Independence alongside John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, and made a number of significant alterations to what Thomas Jefferson had written.

The American Revolution had already begun when Franklin returned to Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second voyage to Great Britain, with conflicts breaking out between the colonists and the British at Lexington and Concord. The main British army was forced to stay in Boston by the New England militia. The Pennsylvania Congress unanimously elected Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress, a gathering of members from the Thirteen Colonies charged with overseeing the war effort against England. He was appointed to the Committee of Five, which produced the Declaration of Independence, in June 1776. Despite the fact that he is temporarily handicapped due to gout and is unable to attend most committee meetings.

The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important papers in the world. One of five persons chosen to assist in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, he is regarded as one of the major accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin. Taking on the duty of authoring this document was a tremendous responsibility that demonstrated Ben Franklin's importance in his life.