100 HAYS — DRAUGHT OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. [Ap. 1, 



letters, giving its history from the day it was composed to that on 

 which it was presented to the American Philosophical Society. 

 .... Mr. Vaughan exhibited also a letter dated a few weeks 

 before my visit from the son of Richard Henry Lee to himself, 

 expressing his astonishment at the reviewer's remarks." 



The letter of R. H. Lee, Jr., above referred to, is preserved in 

 this Society's Manuscript Collections. It is dated, Washington, 

 February 25, 1840, and is in reply to a letter from Mr. Vaughan of 

 January 31, a copy of which is in the Dreer Collection of Auto- 

 graphs in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In 

 the course of the letter Mr. Lee says, ''The Edinburgh Reviewer 

 was rather too learned in our Antiquities. There was no hoax by 

 you, on Marryatt. The paper you shewed him may be called with 

 strict truth an original Draught. It is more so than that at Wash- 

 ington. It was written verbatim after the first rough Draft of the 

 Author^ by the Author himself. It is as much, therefore, an original 

 Draught as it well can be, inasmuch as the priority in time as to the 

 first composed paper is a matter of no account where the same author 

 writes at the same time and occasion the two draughts. Neither 

 are copies ^ 



The following copies of the Declaration of Independence in 

 Jefferson's handwriting are known to exist: 



I. The original rough draught showing changes made in Com- 

 mittee of five and also by parentheses and interlineations most of the 

 changes made by the Congress in Committee of the Whole. This 

 appears to have been the last draught made by Jefferson in its course 

 through Committee, and from it he wrote the fair draught to present 

 to the Congress as the report of the Committee and also the copy 

 to send to Richard Henry Lee (2). He apparently used this same 

 draught in Committee of the Whole and noted on it the changes 

 as they were made by the Congress. This draught was first repro- 

 duced \n facsimile in Randolph' syk^^'ri'*?;/. It was acquired by the 

 Government with the Jefferson papers and is now in the Library of 

 the Department of State. 



2. A copy of the draught reported by the Committee of five to 

 the Congress and agreeing closely with the text of the preceding 

 draught. This is one of two copies presumably made on or about the 

 27th of June, 1776; one was presented to the Congress as the report 

 of the Committee of five and is believed not to have been preserved; 

 the other is the copy in the possession of this Society, and was sent 



