1898.] HATS — DRAUGHT OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 89' 



Below the entry of the donation and on the same page, the 

 following certificate is written : 



'' Having examined the above Draught we certify it to be in the 

 handwriting of Thos. Jefferson. 

 ''Philad. 9 Sep. 1825. 



" W. Short, 

 "Edward Coles, 

 " Who has been for 40 yrs. *' Jn. Vaughan." 



Correspt. of T. J. 



The document makes four, closely written pages on two sheets of 

 white foolscap measuring 125 X 71 inches. 



It appears to be a fair copy, originally without interlineations 

 or erasures, of the Declaration as adopted by the Committee. 

 The omissions made by the Congress sitting in Committee of 

 the Whole are indicated by underscoring the parts omitted and 

 where insertions were made by the Congress they are, for the most 

 part, written on the margin, in a different hand from the body 

 of the text, and, as will be subsequently seen, after the copy had 

 been received by Lee. 



The document was originally folded in four for convenience of 

 transmittal and of filing, and at the top of the outside fold of the 

 last sheet is written the following endorsement : 



''Declaration of Independence as reported to Congress, July 



1777" [sic']. 



At the bottom of the fourth and last page is written : 



"The endorsement is in the handwriting of R. H. Lee, the 

 alterations in that of Arthur Lee." 



Jefferson's letter transmitting this manuscript copy of the Decla- 

 ration to Richard Henry Lee, is as follows : 



"To Richard Henry Lee :^ 



"Philadelphia, July 8th, 1776. 

 " Dear Sir : — For news, I refer you to your brother,- who writes 

 on that head. I enclose a copy of the Declaration of Independ- 



1 From Lee's Life of R. H Lee, Vol. i, p. 275. 



2 Presumably Francis Lightfoot Lee, who was also a delegate from Virginia to 

 the Congress and one of the Signers of the Declaration. 



