a. Thomas Jefferson
The committee consisted of five men: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin, the Franklin was ill and probably did not participate in the initial deliberations. Jefferson, the junior member of the committee, was chosen as draftsman, charged with producing a case for independence in consultation with the other committee members. The text he drafted was presented to Congress on June 28, The independence resolution passed on July 2 by the vote of 12 to 0 (with New York abstaining). But even after that vote, delegates spent the next two days tinkering with the document, making substantive changes and stylistic ethics that Jefferson resisted and resented. Final version was then read aloud, excepted, and approved for a publication.