Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was a junior member of the Virginia delegation to the Continental Congress. Jefferson stated “the British parliament has no right to exercise authority over us” because Americans had established “new societies” by the act of emigration. He asserted , “Our ancestors, before their emigration to America, were the free inhabitants of the British dominion in Europe, and possessed a right which nature has given to all men, of departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of their establishing new societies, under such laws and regulations as to them shall seem most likely to promote public happiness.” Jefferson was well qualified to be selected as the key person in the Committee to write such important document, The Declaration of Independence. He had the reputation of a mastery pen, he was chosen as Delegate of Virginia, and had published a well written paper for the House of Burgesses. He was considered a very fine writer amoung his peers . Adams wrote, “Mr. Jefferson came into Congress, in June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent of composition.”